New York City: Protesters Block Brooklyn Bridge Over Marble Hill ICE Shooting, More Than a Dozen Arrested

More than a dozen protesters were arrested on Wednesday afternoon after demonstrators blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, in a protest against federal immigration enforcement and the shooting of a man by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Upper Manhattan earlier this month.

About 30 activists walked onto the Brooklyn-bound roadway on the Manhattan side of the bridge and sat down across the lanes, according to the New York Post, which put the number taken into custody at about 13 based on law enforcement sources. The NYPD confirmed that multiple people were taken into custody on or near the span. The charges against those arrested were not immediately known.

Video from the bridge showed demonstrators sitting cross-legged in the roadway and chanting against the NYPD and ICE. Some wore shirts reading "Have you seen my neighbor?" and "Sanctuary Campus Now," and the group sat behind a banner reading "Stop Shooting Our Neighbors," according to reports from the scene. At least one protester was carried off the roadway by officers, while others walked off with police.

Why the bridge was blocked

Organizers said the blockade answered the October 8 shooting in Marble Hill, the neighborhood at the northern tip of Manhattan, where an ICE officer shot Oscar Belgal, 28, during an attempted arrest near West 225th Street. Belgal, a Dominican national who had an immigration detainer, was struck in the neck while his 5-year-old son sat in the back seat of the car, according to ABC7 New York reporting carried by QNC News. The boy was not hurt.

Federal officials have defended the officer. The Department of Homeland Security said Belgal used his vehicle as a weapon against agents and alleged that he has ties to the Trinitarios gang. Surveillance footage later obtained by ABC News showed two plainclothes officers approaching his parked SUV with guns drawn, and one of them smashing the driver side window before Belgal pulled away, though the footage did not show the alleged ramming. Belgal was treated at a hospital and then transferred out of New York to a detention center, and the department said it would pursue criminal charges and seek his removal from the country. The protesters on the bridge demanded his release and called for ICE to leave New York City.

Traffic cleared within the hour

The blockade lasted roughly 30 minutes and backed up traffic on the Manhattan side of the bridge, one of the main crossings between Manhattan and Brooklyn. All lanes were open again shortly before 1:30 p.m., after drivers heading into Manhattan faced heavy delays, according to the ABC7 account. FOX 5 New York and CBS News New York both reported the shutdown as it happened on Wednesday afternoon.

The bridge protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations in the city since the Marble Hill shooting, which has kept the conduct of the ICE arrest, and the federal account of it, in dispute for nearly three weeks. Police had not released a final arrest count or the charges by Wednesday afternoon.