Asked if Mamdani was wrong to call Belgal a New Yorker, Martinez said: “The mayor is wrong in many ways — that’s definitely one.”
Martinez’ son was tragically struck by a stray bullet in Mt. Eden, known Trinitarios territory, and authorities said they suspected the vicious gang was involved in the violence.
US Department of Homeland Security officials have said the same gang was involved in the July 2025 shooting of an off-duty CBP officer at Fort Washington Park — and that they were investigating alleged links to Belgal when they approached him Thursday.
Security footage showed plainclothes ICE agents rushing Belgal’s parked car in Marble Hill at around 4 p.m. with guns drawn, before he peeled away, and out of the view of the CCTV cameras.
Marcos Charles, the head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, said Belgal “accelerated” at the agents, “smashing” into two of them.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed the ICE agents were wearing body-worn cameras, but the feds didn’t immediately release the footage.
4 Sources said Belgal supposedly entered the US illegally around 2022 during the Biden administration.New York City Police Department
Federal sources said it’s believed Belgal slipped into the US with a migrant caravan in 2022 without encountering border patrol.
By December 2023, he’d been arrested for the armed robbery a month prior, according to authorities and court records.
Belgal was driving with two people in the backseat along Morris Avenue, when he turned and pointed a gun at them while demanding “give me your jewelry or I will shoot you,” according to the criminal complaint.
The victims handed over jewelry and about $500 cash, and Belgal was later caught — but then released without bail pending trial, records showed.
He pleaded guilty to a lesser rap of fourth-degree grand larceny in April 2025, with the deal landing him a mere month in jail and five years probation when he was sentenced in January, officials said.
That brush with the law apparently did little to reform Belgal — just months after his conviction he was arrested again in August 2025, this time for allegedly selling dangerous drugs like fentanyl, cocaine and heroin in a case that remains open.
Those drug charges were not bail-eligible — meaning Belgal was sprung after his arrest — but prosecutors requested and were granted the highest level of “supervised release,” law enforcement sources said.
But federal sources said detention detainer order was issued for Belgal after his arrest, meaning ICE requested he be handed over to the agency by local authorities — an ask that wasn’t honored.
Mullin said New York’s sanctuary laws — which largely bar local cooperation with federal immigration authorities — prevented them from catching Belgal, and endangered Americans.
“Sanctuary politicians create an environment for criminal activity to thrive, not for American citizens to be safe,” he said. “When you have sanctuary cities and politicians, you endanger the safety of the public.”
Belgal was back behind bars — this time in federal custody — Friday after an ICE agent sH๏τ him in the neck during the attempted arrest where he tried to drive off in his Honda SUV with his 5-year-old son in the backseat.
4 The alleged gangbanger’s rap sheet includes robbing someone at gunpoint in Fordham Heights in 2023.via REUTERS
Intense bodycam footage from the NYPD showed cops rushing to the scene and finding ICE agents tending to the wounded Belgal, while his terrified son screamed in the background.
Seven bullets smashed through the car’s front, side and rear windows, but Belgal survived the injury and was rushed to a hospital. His son was physically unharmed and is now in the care of family.
It was the second time ICE had attempted to arrest Belgal — the agency tried in September, but officials said he managed to flee and get away.
His shooting sparked widespread outrage from lefty New York pols and anti-ICE protesters, who swarmed NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where cops brought Belgal in the aftermath — before he was swept away by the feds in a car.
“A New Yorker was sH๏τ by ICE agents in Marble Hill,” the mayor told reporters. “ICE agents surrounded the man’s vehicle before opening fire. They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces. There was no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents.
4 Federal authorities also believe Belgal is linked to the July 2025 shooting of an off-duty CBP officer at Fort Washington Park.REUTERS
“You are hearing from New Yorkers right now — anguish, pain, anger — at the fact that here in this city, the world’s city, immigrants have to wake up every morning and not know if they can live the lives that they should be able to live,” he fumed.
But not every New Yorker shared the mayor’s views — including one of Belgal’s Upper Manhattan neighbors, who answered with a staunch “No” when asked if she considered him a New Yorker.
“Absolutely not. That’s one of the reasons I think we should vote blue out,” former neighbor Mora Rodriguez told The Post.
“What’s going on with the legal system, the jail, letting these people go after they have a whole list of convictions. This is a criminal. Why would you let this person out?” said Rodriguez, a longtime and elderly resident of Belgal’s old Inwood building. “These judges are very radical. We gotta vote red. That’s what I can say to you.”
