Protesters accuse Bronx Target of being staging area for ICE agents after shooting in Marble Hill
A group of protesters is rallying outside a Target in the Bronx after they say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used the store's parking lot as a staging area.
Community leaders and elected officials are at the Marble Hill Target Tuesday morning, days after an ICE agent shot a man in that area.
The shooting happened across the highway from the store and shopping plaza where the news conference is being held.
"Target has no cooperative agreements with ICE or any other immigration enforcement agency," a Target spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the shooting was not on Target's property or adjacent to the property.
A spokesperson for the Shops at Marble Hill said the property has not, and will not, cooperate with ICE.
"We were unaware of any ICE or Federal enforcement presence or activity at the Shops at Marble Hill before we were informed by yourselves and community members last week. We certainly never authorized any activity by these agencies," read a letter to elected officials.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said a review of the shooting will include ICE's alleged use of a privately owned parking lot as a staging location.
"ICE continues to use privately owned parking lots as staging locations," Mamdani said. "We have an Executive Order 13 that we've put forward to ensure that there is no complicity and collaboration between the actions of our city government and ICE. But now, when it comes to privately owned locations, that is another place that we are focused on and looking to see what we can do to prevent."
According to the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents in plainclothes were trying to take Oscar Bergal, 28, into custody when he was shot. New York police officers at the scene said shots were fired into Bergal's vehicle while his 5-year-old son was sitting in the back seat.
He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the child was not injured, police said.
DHS said Bergal is from the Dominican Republic and in the U.S. illegally. They also said he has ties to the Trinitarios gang.
Immigration officials have defended the shooting, saying Bergal refused to exit the vehicle and the agent didn't know there was a child in the backseat.
On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked Bergal from being deported.
Bergal's shooting sparked protests. There were demonstrations Friday in Foley Square and Marble Hill and a rally in Herald Square where community members, immigrant advocates, and elected officials slammed the actions of the federal agents.
