At around 4 p.m. on October 8, ICE agents in the Marble Hill section of the Bronx attempted to arrest a 28-year-old illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic. The man had a grand larceny conviction and prior arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession, and weapons possession. He was a suspected member of the Trinitarios gang. A 5-year-old child was in the vehicle.

An ICE agent fired seven rounds, striking the man in the neck below his left ear. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's response wasn't to ask why a convicted criminal with gang ties was still on the streets. It was to demand that Trump release him.

"All they do is terrorize this city," Mamdani said of ICE — not of the gang member with the weapons charges. "ICE is rotten to its core."

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed the details: "Based on evidence collected at the scene, we know that at least one ICE agent discharged the seven rounds, striking the driver in the neck below his left ear." The man was treated at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital.

The man had been arrested by the NYPD on December 7, 2023. He was back on the streets anyway. DHS pointed directly at New York City's sanctuary policies as the reason — the same policies that prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, the same policies Mamdani champions as a point of civic pride.

Governor Kathy Hochul called President Trump and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to express what she described as "outrage on behalf of New Yorkers" and urged them to "halt ICE enforcement operations in New York." Not halt gang activity. Not halt illegal immigration. Halt the people trying to enforce the law.

Within hours, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the hospital chanting "ICE off our streets" and "No justice, no peace." Some added "From Palestine to Mexico, all these walls have got to go" — because nothing says solidarity with a Bronx neighborhood like importing a foreign conflict into it. Several arrests were made.

The DHS statement was three sentences long and carried more information than everything Mamdani said combined: "ICE officers immediately rendered aid. The individual is alive and at a local hospital. The FBI and HSI are on the scene."

Here's the sequence that Mamdani doesn't want you to think about too carefully. A man enters the country illegally. He racks up arrests for assault, robbery, drugs, and weapons. He catches a grand larceny conviction. New York's sanctuary policies ensure that none of this triggers cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. ICE finally locates him and attempts an arrest. An agent fires during the encounter. And the mayor of New York City goes on camera to call the federal agents — not the convicted criminal — the threat to public safety.

Mamdani was elected to protect New York City. The man ICE tried to arrest was a suspected gang member with a rap sheet that reads like a charging document. The 5-year-old in the car wasn't put there by ICE.

The agent rendered aid after the shooting. Mamdani rendered a press conference.