Nearly a week after he was shot during an encounter with Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers in Manhattan, the man remains held at a detention center with the bullet still inside him, his attorneys alleged in a court filing Wednesday.
Oscar Belgal was shot Thursday in his car while his 5-year-old son was in the back seat, authorities said. Attorneys with the Legal Aid Society said in a habeas petition that the bullet is still “lodged in his neck” and he is only being given ibuprofen for the pain.
“With the bullet still lodged in his neck, the entire left side of Oscar’s face remains numb. He struggles to hear anything out of his left ear, describing what he does hear as sounding as if it were far off in the distance,” the petition said.
The 28-year-old Dominican national is allegedly being held in a segregated unit at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, as federal prosecutors seek to remove him from the country, according to the petition.
A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting Belgal or transferring him outside of the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York or the District of New Jersey. A different judge ordered a similar block on Belgal’s deportation last week.
In his order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez is also asking the government to explain why it believes Belgal warrants mandatory detention despite recent rulings, including one by the same judge, that limits the government’s ability to detain someone without bond or consideration of their individual circumstances.
Belgal’s attorneys contended ICE agents arrested Belgal without a warrant.
ICE did not immediately comment on the latest court filing from Belgal’s attorneys.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that Belgal, who they claim has “associations” with a gang and a criminal record, “weaponized his vehicle,” when ICE agents tried to box him in with their vehicles during the arrest. Belgal denies having involvement with the gang and his attorneys say ICE has not provided any evidence?
Surveillance footage shows Belgal parked in his SUV when two officers in plainclothes approach him with guns drawn.
It is not immediately clear what the two armed men were saying to Belgal.
Belgal is seen reversing and then driving out of the parking spot as one of the armed men punches the driver’s side window and breaks the glass. He is seen driving off.
In their petition, Belgal’s attorneys provided more details about what they claim happened during that confrontation. They said their client had picked up his 5-year-old son from school Thursday afternoon and then took him to a McDonald’s for an after-school snack.
When they arrived home, Belgal noticed he was parking in front of a hydrant and started to back up before pulling forward, the petition said.
It was at that moment that a “masked man stormed” his driver-side window with his weapon drawn, and other masked agents surrounded the vehicle, the petition said.
“[W]ithout identifying himself, the first man struck and shattered Oscar’s window and began firing a pistol into Oscar’s car while his son cowered in the back seat,” the petition said.
The shooting sparked outrage from many New Yorkers and elected officials, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani who called on the federal government to remove ICE from the city.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin pushed back against Mamdani during a news conference Friday and slammed the city’s sanctuary cities policies.
ABC News’ Luke Barr contributed to this report.
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