One man was injured after ICE agents opened fire during an incident in New York City, with the shooting taking place in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx on Thursday afternoon.
The New York Police Department said federal agents were involved in the shooting shortly after 4pm near 2 Marble Hill Avenue. The wounded man was taken to hospital and was conscious, with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.
Footage from the scene showed police officers removing the man from a silver SUV and placing him in the back of a black car. The vehicle then drove away, while armed federal agents gathered around the SUV.
Police have not said what led to the shooting. Multiple law enforcement sources said ICE agents had been in the neighbourhood looking for a man with a criminal record.
A senior official said the person being sought had previously been arrested for robbery, resulting in a grand larceny conviction, and had an open drug case. The man who was shot was not the person agents were looking for, according to a report citing police sources.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said he had been told by officers at the scene that a toddler was inside the vehicle when the shooting took place. That detail has not been independently confirmed.
Video showed the wounded man being pulled from the SUV in handcuffs as federal agents surrounded the vehicle. A man wearing a construction vest and a badge was also seen holding a semi-automatic rifle while moving through the area.
The incident prompted a large police response, with officers apparently closing off roads as Homeland Security and the FBI joined the NYPD at the scene. Images showed damage to the SUV and what appeared to be bullet holes in its rear.
Residents described hearing gunshots and seeing police and federal agents rush into the neighbourhood.
“I only heard four shots, but I thought it was a car backfiring,” one woman said.
She said she then realised they were gunshots and saw police officers running through the streets, followed by more officers and ICE agents.
“Everybody was running,” she said. “I think it’s horrifying.”
Another witness said he had been shopping when he was alerted to the shooting. “And then I came out and there was someone on the ground in handcuffs,” he said. “There was a guy holding a gun up, looking around in case someone wanted to interfere. He was ICE.”
Calls for a full investigation into the ICE agents shooting
The shooting came days after West Bronx and Upper Manhattan officials urged the owners of the Shops at Marble Hill to prevent federal immigration agents from using the plaza’s Target car park as a staging area for enforcement activity.
The Target is directly across the street from the location where the shooting was reported to have taken place. In a letter sent on Monday, the officials said residents should not fear that local shops were being used as a base for immigration enforcement.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had been briefed on the incident and called for a full account of what happened.
“We expect federal authorities to provide a full and transparent accounting of the circumstances surrounding this incident,” she said. “New Yorkers deserve to know exactly what happened and why.”
Congressman Adriano Espaillat said he had visited the scene and spoken to police officers. He called for all body-camera footage and other evidence to be preserved, as well as a full investigation involving the federal government.
New York City Council’s Progressive Caucus said it was “outraged” by the shooting and described it as a danger to the city’s immigrant community. Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive of the New York Immigration Coalition, also criticised what he called ICE’s “violent tactics”.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, was asked for comment.
