NEW YORK, NY — Video made public after an October 8 shooting by federal immigration officers in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood shows parts of a fast-moving confrontation, but the available recordings do not conclusively establish everything that occurred when an officer fired at a driver with a 5-year-old child inside the vehicle.
The driver, a 28-year-old Dominican man identified as Oscar Bergal in updated New York police-based news reports and as Oscar Belgal in reporting quoting his attorneys, was wounded in the neck. The child was not physically injured. Some initial reporting used a different spelling of the driver’s surname; SNN identifies the discrepancy rather than treating the names as different people.
What the footage shows
Surveillance images show plainclothes officers approaching a vehicle. Separate police-worn body-camera footage shows the response after the shooting. Reporting from the Associated Press and CBS New York explains the limits of the available video.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said a federal officer fired seven shots during the incident. Local police were not part of the federal arrest attempt.
Federal account and unanswered questions
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said the driver refused instructions and struck government vehicles as he tried to leave. Federal officials argue the officers perceived an immediate threat. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said agents did not know a child was in the vehicle.
Those statements describe the federal government’s account; they do not substitute for a completed use-of-force investigation. New York officials, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul, have called for more transparency and release of the relevant federal body-camera recordings.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said her office was investigating the incident. Separate proceedings concerning the driver’s immigration detention do not resolve the question of whether the shooting was legally justified.
What the public still cannot see
The central question remains whether the officer’s decision to fire met the relevant legal standards in the precise circumstances confronting the agents. Partial video views and competing descriptions cannot be treated as a substitute for the full investigative record.
What SNN will follow: official release of federal camera recordings, investigators’ conclusions, any charging decisions or civil litigation, and court orders affecting the man’s custody.
Sources: Associated Press, October 9, 2026; CBS New York, updated October 9; News 12, surveillance footage report.
