A 28-year-old Dominican man shot in the neck by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in New York City on Thursday ‘weaponized his vehicle’ against officers before bullets were fired, according to the White House. 

Marcos Charles, a top ICE official, told a press conference Friday that Oscar Belgal  ‘accelerated his vehicle’ towards agents in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx.

‘He accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate going towards other officers,’ Charles said. 

He added that ICE officers feared for their safety and that of the public, and ‘used their training’ to respond with gunfire. 

Belgal was in a car with his five-year-old son at the time of the shooting. He survived a bullet wound to the neck and was treated in hospital before being taken to an ICE facility in another state, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 

US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told the Friday press conference that Belgal had previously ‘fled’ law enforcement in September. 

Mullin said that since Belgal was in the country illegally with his son, the government considers his five-year-old child to be a ‘collateral criminal’ in the ICE operation. 

DHS said it had been seeking to arrest the man in a ‘targeted enforcement operation’. Officials said that ‘during the incident, an ICE officer discharged his weapon’ and that Belgal was injured. 

A 28-year-old Dominican man shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in New York City on Thursday ‘weaponized his vehicle’ before the bullet was fired, according to the White House

US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told a press conference Friday that Oscar Belgal, who survived the shooting and was in the US illegally, was ‘a threat to our community’ and had previously ‘fled’ law enforcement in September

This is a breaking news story with updates to follow.