A federal immigration agent shot and injured a man in a largely residential section of New York City on Thursday, eliciting swift rebukes from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called the situation “unconscionable.”
The shooting happened at about 4 p.m. in the Marble Hill neighborhood, according to a Police Department statement. A police spokesman said the person who was shot had been taken to a nearby hospital and was conscious and receiving medical attention.
Marble Hill, a geographic curiosity, is considered either part of Upper Manhattan or at the Bronx’s southern edge. The shooting occurred along a strip of small stores and restaurants on West 225th Street, about a block from Broadway.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the shooting occurred as agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out a “targeted enforcement operation” meant to arrest an undocumented immigrant with a criminal record. According to witnesses, the man was in a vehicle at the time.
The statement did not include the man’s name or indicate what he might have done to prompt the shooting. He was in the United States illegally from the Dominican Republic and had been convicted of grand larceny, according to the statement.
The man was arrested in New York in December 2023 and released a few days later because of the city’s “reckless” sanctuary policies, the statement said. Those policies prohibit New York City authorities from cooperating in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The Police Department said in its statement that New York City officers were not involved in the events surrounding the shooting.
“The incident remains under investigation,” the Homeland Security Department statement said.
Mr. Mamdani, in a statement posted on social media, said that “early reports” indicated that ICE agents had “surrounded” the man and “a 5-year-old child in his car before firing multiple rounds.” The child was apparently unharmed, Mr. Mamdani added.
“This is an unconscionable and incredibly serious situation,” the mayor said. “I have called the president; when we speak I will demand that he ends all ICE enforcement actions in our city. I will not stand by while ICE agents terrorize our communities.”
In a statement, Ms. Hochul condemned ICE for shooting “into a vehicle with a five-year-old inside,” adding that, “By the Grace of God, that child appears to have escaped without physical injury.”
“New Yorkers have witnessed far too many acts of violence by a rogue federal agency and untrained agents that operate with impunity,” Ms. Hochul added. “Federal authorities need to provide answers, and they must do so immediately.”
ICE has increased pressure on its agents to make more arrests across the United States in recent months, resulting in a surge that has largely occurred outside the public eye.
Arrests by ICE agents in New York State soared from 927 in May to 1,193 in June and 1,567 in July, according to federal data compiled by the Deportation Data Project, an academic group.
At least two dozen people have been shot at by federal immigration agents involved in President Trump’s deportation campaign since he took office in January 2025. Six people have been fatally shot amid the ICE crackdown, including three U.S. citizens.
Traffic stops have been central to the surge in arrests since the summer. In July, traffic stops in Houston and Biddeford, Maine, ended with ICE agents fatally shooting people, casting a harsh spotlight on the agency’s tactics.
Justin Miranda, who lives in Marble Hill near the shooting scene, said he was in his home when he heard five shots ring out just after 4 p.m. He said he ran outside and down the block toward the Marble Hill Metro-North Station.
There, he said, he saw several law enforcement officers in the street who appeared to be federal agents. He pulled out his phone and began recording.
One of the agents was standing next to a man who was sitting in the street near a vehicle, Mr. Miranda said. The man appeared to be bleeding from around his shoulder and neck, Mr. Miranda said, and was handcuffed behind his back, and was yelling in Spanish.
“The guy looked hurt,” he said. “He was alert, but definitely wounded.”
A video filmed by a bystander showed New York City officers arriving at the scene, picking up the wounded man as the ICE agents stood by, and carrying him toward Broadway and the NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital a few blocks away.
Viely Herrera said she was standing at 225th Street and Broadway when she heard what she estimated to be five shots.
“It was just bam-bam-bam!” she said. “Everybody was shocked.”
Turning in the direction of the shots, Ms. Herrera said she watched an S.U.V. crash into concrete barriers on the edge of 225th Street. A man came out of the vehicle holding his neck and shouting in Spanish, she said.
She said she saw a young boy in the back of the S.U.V. who was crying. A woman tried to take him from the scene, Ms. Herrera said, but law enforcement officers would not let her.
“I’m so sad for that little boy,” she said. “That all happened right in front of him.”
A photo from the shooting site shows a bullet hole in the driver’s side of the windshield of a silver vehicle. As of 9 p.m., the vehicle remained in the street.
Ted Fair, who lives in Marble Hill, said in an interview earlier that he had been walking home with his daughter on 225th Street after picking her up at the 1 train station nearby when they came upon the aftermath of the shooting near Marble Hill Avenue.
Several law enforcement agents were still at the scene in the late afternoon, including one who was wearing a reflective vest of the kind worn by construction workers and wielding an assault-style weapon with one hand, and neighborhood residents had gathered there as well, Mr. Fair said.
By about 6:30 p.m., officials with the state attorney general’s office were at the scene, as was Representative Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat who represents Marble Hill. Residents of the immediate area had been told by the police that their ability to come and go was being restricted because of a federal investigation into what had happened.
By 7 p.m., a crowd of protesters was growing at the shooting site. The Rev. Emily DeTar Birt, a Unitarian minister, was among them.
“I have lived in this neighborhood for 10 years,” she said, choking up as she spoke. “There are a number of high schools here, a charter school and at least three day cares. This is happening in broad day light in front of our kids.”
Several dozen protesters had also gathered outside the Allen Hospital.
Danielle Herbert-Guggenheim, who lives in the Bronx and is a teacher at Public School 200, said it was critical for immigrants, especially children, to feel supported by the city.
“It is so important that we inform and really teach and educate people to understand immigrants are not the problem,” Ms. Herbert-Guggenheim said.
Tensions began to rise as the protest outside the hospital stretched into the night, with protesters and police officers scuffling as the officers tried to put up barricades to establish a clear path to and from the building’s entrance.
Protesters chanted “No justice, no peace, we want ICE off our streets,” and some hurled water bottles at the police. At least one person was taken into custody.
The shooting appeared to be the first by ICE in the city since 2020.
Miles G. Cohen, Maria Cramer, Ana Ley, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Oishika Neogi and Nate Schweber contributed reporting.
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