ICE Agent at NYC Shooting Has History of Alleged Violence and Illegal Arrests

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on the scene of a taking pictures in higher Manhattan on Thursday has repeatedly been accused in federal court docket of illegal arrests and using force throughout arrests in New York and Minneapolis, a WIRED investigation finds.

On Thursday afternoon, ICE brokers shot a person, recognized by metropolis authorities as Oscar Belgal, in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood, close to the Bronx. Mayor Zohran Mamdani mentioned brokers surrounded the person’s automobile, wherein a 5-year-old baby was sitting, earlier than firing a number of rounds—as many as seven, witnesses informed local media. Belgal, the New York Police Division said, was hospitalized after reportedly being shot in the neck. The kid appeared unhurt.

Footage from the scene exhibits a person in a high-visibility yellow development vest brandishing a modified AR-15-style rifle with a pistol grip, sling, and holographic sights. That man, in response to court docket paperwork, social media posts, and publicly obtainable private data reviewed by WIRED, is Brenden Cuni—an ICE supervisor with the company’s Nationwide Fugitive Operations crew who has been concerned in a number of arrests within the New York Metropolis area and Minneapolis throughout Operation Metro Surge final winter.

Cuni recognized himself as an ICE agent to NYPD officers, a legislation enforcement supply tells WIRED, and was the one federal agent captured on video brandishing a weapon on scene. In a statement, the Division of Homeland Safety claims that ICE brokers had been making an attempt to apprehend an undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic with a previous conviction for grand larceny.

A WIRED evaluate of federal court docket instances, social media, and different public information means that Cuni has repeatedly been on the middle of unlawful ICE avenue arrests in New York and past. Court docket filings accuse him of utilizing a Taser on a handcuffed man, whereas activists have alleged he is without doubt one of the brokers seen forcing a pregnant lady to the bottom throughout a Minneapolis operation. In latest months, federal judges have repeatedly discovered arrests involving Cuni illegal. One decide referred to as an arrest warrant he signed “fraudulent,” whereas one other mentioned that video proof contradicts his sworn account of an arrest; in a 3rd case, the federal government withdrew his sworn statements as inaccurate.

Cuni has been a DHS agent for almost a decade. Based on court docket declarations he signed, Cuni started his federal legislation enforcement profession with Customs and Border Safety as a Border Patrol agent in San Diego in 2018 earlier than changing into a deportation officer in 2020. In December 2024, he was promoted to a supervisory detention and deportation officer, and in Might 2025, he joined the Nationwide Fugitive Operations crew.

Cuni’s work historical past earlier than his time with DHS stays unclear. Felician College, a non-public Catholic college in New Jersey, listed him as a member of its 2018 baseball roster. On that website, Cuni lists his residence city as New Rochelle—a suburb simply north of the Bronx.