Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin vowed he would “never apologize” for the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers after federal agents fired several rounds at a suspect inside a car with a 5-year-old in New York City.

Mullin launched a furious defense of his department at a Friday morning press conference about Thursday night’s shooting, where he lashed out at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani after he declared that ICE was “rotten to its core,” and accused reporters of peddling “fake news.”

The shooting took place Thursday around 4 p.m. on a residential street in the city’s Marble Hill neighborhood as commuters were coming home from work and children were walking back from school. At a press conference that night, police commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the man as Oscar Belgal, 28, who was shot in the neck by at least one ICE agent who fired seven rounds at the car while the child was inside. The child was unharmed and being cared for by a family member, Tisch said.

Mullin said that officers were not aware that the child was in the vehicle at the time. Any “outrage” should be directed at Belgal, Mullin said.

ICE agents fired at Belgal after “fearing” for their own safety and the safety of the public, top ICE official Marcos Charles said. “Belgal refused lawful orders to exit his vehicle. He then accelerated vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles, and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going towards other officers.”

DHS claims that Belgal was a “criminal illegal alien” from the Dominican Republic “with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny, and multiple prior arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs, and weapons possession.” Charles, the ICE official, claimed that Belgal has ties to the Trinitarios gang and was targeted because of “indirect or direct knowledge” of a shooting involving an off-duty customs officer in the city in July 2025.

At Thursday’s press conference, Mamdani called for ICE to be abolished, and addressed New Yorkers “not just as the mayor of our city, but as someone who is proud to be an immigrant in our city.”

“Tonight, a 5-year-old child sits traumatized and terrified,” the mayor said as protesters chanted in the background. “Tonight, millions of our neighbors are wondering whether they will be safe on our streets, in our schools, at their work sites…Tonight, New Yorkers across the five boroughs are asking whether their civil liberties will be respected, whether law and order is supposed to look like a man carrying a long gun wearing a mask.”

“We know that ICE is rotten to its core,” he added. Mamdani said that he had spoken to President Donald Trump and Mullin to negotiate the release of Belgal, but was “unsuccessful.” The mayor said that “ICE put the man in an unmarked vehicle and whisked him away.”

The next day, Mullin tore into Mamdani and accused the mayor of using words that are “dangerous and incite hostility.”

“He said that ICE is rotten to the core. Really?” Mullin reacted. “Men and women at ICE each are enforcing the laws that he refuses to enforce.”

Mullin appeared to grow frustrated as the press conference went on, snapping at a reporter who asked him about whether he would continue to use planes that were purchased under his predecessor, Kristi Noem.

“All you’re doing here is you’re trying to take this someplace else because you know that we arrested the worst of the worst last night,” Mullin said. “And you’re trying to bring up something else that’s controversial. This is what I hate about fake news.”

In his final remarks, Mullin appeared exasperated. “What is so bad about Department of Homeland Security, because it was stood up to protect us from an event that happened 25 years ago?” Mullin asked, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“I’m so tired of it all the sudden being controversial because it’s a political taking point,” a frustrated Mullin continued. “We’re keeping men and women in this country safe… I’ll never apologize about our men and women doing their job. I’m very proud of them.”

Footage from bystanders at the scene captured the man being held on the ground by an agent dressed in grey. He was bleeding from the neck but was sitting upright.

Tisch said that Belgal was convicted of grand larceny in 2023 and received five years’ probation, and has a drug case pending. The police commissioner stressed that the NYPD “had no involvement in the federal operation prior to the shooting, and no members of the NYPD were on scene at the time of the shooting.”

Under the city’s sanctuary policies, New York City authorities are limited in cooperating with federal immigration law enforcement.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul joined Mamdani in condemning ICE. “By the Grace of God, that child appears to have escaped without physical injury,” she said in a statement.

“I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York.”