New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani renewed his attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Sunday, comparing an officer involved in a Bronx shooting to a “mass shooter” and accusing the federal agency of terrorizing New Yorkers. His remarks came as federal officials defended the officers’ actions, citing the suspect’s alleged attempt to flee in his vehicle and his criminal history.

The incident occurred Thursday when ICE officers attempted to arrest Oscar Belgal, 28, a Dominican national, during an enforcement operation in the Bronx. According to the Department of Homeland Security, officers used their vehicles to block Belgal’s vehicle, but he refused lawful orders to exit.

DHS said Belgal accelerated, struck two government vehicles and drove toward other officers, prompting agents to fire because they believed their lives and the lives of others were in danger. Belgal suffered a superficial wound to his neck before officers arrested him, administered first aid and transported him to a hospital. The shooting remains under investigation.

Belgal’s 5-year-old son was in the back seat during the incident, although DHS said officers did not know the child was present when they fired. Belgal was subsequently transferred to an immigration detention facility outside New York.

Rather than wait for the investigation to establish the full circumstances, Mamdani used the incident to renew his broader campaign against ICE, arguing that federal officers had created fear and confusion by conducting the operation in public.

“What you could see in that video and in the videos that have been released since is people, bystanders outside unsure as to what they were even seeing,” Mamdani told MS NOW. He said the imagery resembled “a mass shooter” rather than someone representing a federal agency.

Mamdani also criticized the officers’ clothing and tactics, arguing that law enforcement agents should wear identifiable uniforms and pointing to the New York Police Department’s policies on shooting at moving vehicles. His comparison places federal immigration officers in the same rhetorical category as mass shooters, even though DHS says the agents fired in response to a vehicle moving toward them and that the incident’s circumstances have yet to be fully established.

The mayor has called the shooting “unconscionable and incredibly serious,” demanded that President Donald Trump end ICE operations in New York City and renewed his call to abolish the agency. He also described the city as having been “terrorized by a rogue federal agency,” framing the shooting as part of a broader indictment of federal immigration enforcement.

Mamdani spent nearly two hours Thursday discussing Belgal’s release from federal custody with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. According to CNN, the discussions included a three-way conversation in which Trump and Mullin offered to transfer Belgal to the NYPD, but the negotiations ended without an agreement.

The negotiations highlighted a divide between the mayor’s push to remove ICE from New York and the Trump administration’s effort to enforce federal immigration law. Mamdani’s demand to abolish ICE goes beyond objections to the specific shooting, placing the incident at the center of his wider opposition to the administration’s deportation operations.

DHS, meanwhile, cited Belgal’s criminal history in defending the federal enforcement effort. The department said he was convicted of fourth-degree grand larceny in April 2025 and sentenced to five years of probation. DHS also said he had previously been arrested on robbery, drug and assault charges, had associations with the Trinitarios gang and was the subject of an investigation into the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection officer.

Those allegations provide additional context for the attempted arrest, although prior arrests and alleged gang associations do not, by themselves, establish what happened during Thursday’s confrontation. The circumstances surrounding the use of force remain under investigation.

Mullin criticized sanctuary-city policies following the incident, arguing that restrictions on cooperation with federal immigration authorities can undermine public safety.

“Sanctuary politicians create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for American citizens to be safe,” Mullin said Friday. “President Trump made it clear that he would restore law and order in our cities and in our states.”

The dispute underscores the widening confrontation between New York City’s Democratic mayor and the Trump administration over immigration enforcement. While Mamdani has used the shooting to press for an end to ICE operations, federal officials maintain that the officers faced a threat during an attempted arrest. The investigation will be central to determining the circumstances that led to the shooting.