Traffic ground to a halt on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday afternoon as a group of demonstrators sat down in the roadway, blocking cars in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Protesters lined the Brooklyn-bound side of the span, chanting and clapping in unison as they denounced ICE, gun violence, and the NYPD.
The group said the action was a direct response to the ICE shooting earlier this month in Marble Hill, according to abc7ny.com, and demonstrators said they were calling on ICE to leave New York City altogether. Citizen video captured cars backed up for blocks as protesters held their line, per PIX11, which first reported on the blockade.
Demonstrators held large yellow banners reading “Stop Shooting Us” and “Stop Shooting Our Neighbors,” and at one point chanted “Fire Jessica Tisch Now!” according to PIX11’s reporting. A spokesperson for the NYPD said police were aware of the situation, the outlet reported.
What Sparked the Blockade
The protest traces back to the shooting of Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old man who was shot in the neck by a federal immigration officer while driving with a 5-year-old child in the back seat, according to pbs.org. The child was not struck, according to a report from the same organization noted above. Belgal survived the shooting, per PBS NewsHour’s account.
Evidence collected from the scene indicates at least one ICE agent fired seven rounds during the encounter, according to ABC News. The NYPD said it had no involvement in the shooting and responded to the scene only after it occurred, the network reported. The NYPD later released body-camera footage from the first officers who arrived, showing them taking Belgal to a hospital, according to CBS News New York. The clips did not show the shooting itself, but did show an armed plainclothes immigration officer approaching a parked vehicle before it drove away, according to the New York Times.
Legal and Political Fallout
A federal judge temporarily barred the government from deporting Belgal or moving him outside the Southern District, Eastern District of New York, or the District of New Jersey while his petition is under consideration, ABC News reported. The Bronx district attorney, Darcel Clark, said her office is investigating the shooting, according to the Times’ live coverage of the case.
The shooting quickly sparked angry protests from local residents and elected officials, including demonstrations outside the hospital where Belgal was reportedly treated, according to The Guardian. Protesters outside that hospital shouted “Shut it down” and “ICE out!” while passing cars honked in support, the paper reported. Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered in Herald Square for a separate anti-ICE protest tied to the Marble Hill shooting, according to CBS News New York’s coverage of that rally. Five people were taken into custody during protests the Thursday night after the shooting, the outlet reported.
A Broader Pattern of Shootings
The Marble Hill incident is not isolated. ICE agents have fired their guns during more than a dozen vehicle stops since last year, killing at least four people and wounding others, according to PBS NewsHour. That pattern has fueled much of the anger driving protests like Wednesday’s bridge blockade.
Arrests and Reopening
By Wednesday afternoon, all lanes on the bridge had reopened, with officials saying traffic resumed just before 1:30 p.m., according to abc7ny.com. Reporting on arrests shifted over the course of the day: an earlier account from the station said the NYPD was expected to make arrests but that the number was not yet known, while a later report from the same outlet said about 14 people were arrested during the protests that blocked traffic entering Manhattan. PIX11, which was first to report on the demonstration, described the story as developing as of Wednesday afternoon.
