AOC Accuses Target of Letting ICE Use Bronx Stores as 'Staging Sites' After Shooting

**Updated 18:10 UTC: Developing story.**

WASHINGTON: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused Target of letting Immigration and Customs Enforcement use its stores and parking lots as "staging sites" for immigration operations, hours after a federal agent shot a man in the Bronx on Thursday with a five-year-old boy in the back seat of his car.

The congresswoman called on the retail giant to "stop offering their Bronx properties as private staging sites for ICE," saying large, active retail parking lots turned over to immigration enforcement are unacceptable and put the whole community at risk. A Target store and parking lot sit about half a mile from where the shooting took place, according to the New York Post.

Target said it has no cooperative agreement with ICE or any other federal immigration agency, a company spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.

Ocasio-Cortez's accusation capped a day in which the shooting turned into a rallying point for Democrats demanding the abolition of the agency. She called ICE "a rogue, lawless paramilitary and surveillance agency," and said it does not belong in New York City and should not exist in the United States. "Abolish ICE," she said.

Like her Democratic colleagues, Ocasio-Cortez demanded an independent investigation into the shooting and the immediate release of all body-camera footage of the encounter.

What happened in the Bronx

The wounded man was identified by the New York Police Department as Oscar Belgal, 28, a Dominican national. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at least one federal officer fired seven rounds during an ICE arrest operation around 4 p.m. Thursday in Marble Hill, striking Belgal in the neck below his left ear. Belgal survived and was taken to a hospital, authorities said. The five-year-old boy, believed to be his son, was not physically harmed.

The NYPD said its officers played no part in the federal operation. Federal officials said Belgal had a grand larceny conviction and prior arrests for assault, robbery, and drug and weapons offenses, and they alleged ties to the Trinitarios gang.

At a Friday press conference, Department of Homeland Security officials said ICE officers opened fire after Belgal accelerated his car while it was boxed in by two unmarked government vehicles. The officials said the officers' body cameras were recording. The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations are investigating the shooting.

A city and the federal government collide

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the shooting as unconscionable and ended a late-night press conference with the demand: "Abolish ICE." Mamdani said he had spoken with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in an unsuccessful effort to secure the wounded man's release from federal custody.

Mullin rejected Mamdani's demand that ICE end its operations in New York City, saying the agency would not pause immigration enforcement in the sanctuary city.

The shooting came a day after CNN reported that ICE agents had been told to increase daily immigration arrests ahead of the midterm elections. Hundreds of protesters gathered near the scene and outside the hospital where Belgal was treated on Thursday night.

No body-camera footage has been publicly released, so the federal account of the shooting has not been independently verified.