ICE Supervisor at NYC Shooting Has a Long Record of Unlawful Arrests, and DHS Still Wants Us to Blame the Victim

As I’m sure you know, last Thursday around 4 p.m., plainclothes ICE agents walked up to a silver Honda Civic on Marble Hill Avenue in the Bronx with their guns drawn, and by the time the shooting stopped, at least one agent had fired seven rounds into the car. The driver, 28-year-old Oscar Belgal, was hit in the neck. Sitting in the backseat the whole time was his 5-year-old son. Since then, we’ve learned a lot about one of the agents on the scene.

Reporting from WIRED and The City Reporter identifies him as Brenden Cuni, and it seems like instead of dotting the i in his name, someone should have crossed the t. Anyway, Cuni is a supervisory deportation officer who is the one agent captured in eyewitness videos and NYPD body camera footage holding what looks like a modified assault rifle, wearing a construction vest with an ICE badge dangling from his neck.

Cuni reportedly told NYPD officers at the scene who he was. What nobody has said is whether he’s the one who fired, because DHS hasn’t named the shooter, and The City Reporter says it isn’t even clear which agent pulled the trigger. I won’t pin those shots on him without proof, but he was there, he was armed, and his history deserves a hard look.

He’s no rookie, either. According to sworn court declarations, Cuni started as a Border Patrol agent in San Diego in 2018, became an ICE deportation officer in 2020, was promoted to supervisor in December 2024, and joined the National Fugitive Operations team in May 2025.

The paper trail he’s built along the way is something else. Judge Gary Brown found that Cuni signed a warrant saying database searches had confirmed a Bronx man was undocumented when those searches had turned up nothing, and that ICE then added the man to the databases and searched again to “find” him. Brown called it a fraudulent arrest warrant.

Judge Brian Cogan ruled another of Cuni’s arrests unlawful after doorbell video largely contradicted his account, and The City Reporter says the judge found he lied in sworn statements.

Judge Pamela Chen found that a May arrest in Bushwick, which Cuni supervised and signed the warrant for, violated the man’s Fifth Amendment rights.

In June, government lawyers themselves withdrew what a judge called inaccurate, sworn representations from Cuni and others.

Lawsuits also accuse him of tasing a handcuffed Bronx man about six times and hurling a slur at him, though ICE says that man ‘resisted arrest,’ so I’ll keep that in the allegation column for now.

Why wasn’t an agent with that record shown the door? Instead, he was promoted and moved onto the fugitive operations team, and as far as anyone can tell, none of those rulings cost him his badge, his rifle, or his spot on the front line. He was out there Thursday carrying it down a residential street. That’s exactly the type of agent ICE and DHS reward.

When The City Reporter asked about his arrest history and his presence at the shooting, DHS said it would never confirm or deny attempts to dox its officers and then recited its usual line about arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists. Remember, kids, with this administration, every accusation is an admission of guilt.

DHS’s version of events has just been more of the same. Its first statement said an officer discharged his weapon and that agents immediately rendered aid, without a single word about the 5-year-old.

Secretary Markwayne Mullin later admitted agents weren’t aware there was a child in the car, then pointed the finger anyway, saying Belgal knew he had his son with him. Mullin also claims agents had their badges out and gave lawful commands, while Mayor Mamdani says masked agents in construction vests left bystanders unable to tell who they were.

In the same breath, DHS says Belgal “weaponized” his vehicle, which is the same excuse we’ve watched ICE use again and again, including after Renee Good was killed in Minneapolis. And when he was asked about body camera footage, Mullin said DHS would release everything after an investigation that includes DHS’s own Homeland Security Investigations, so the people responsible for the shooting are investigating themselves.

And, of course, DHS is trying to make Belgal the villain. They point to a prior grand larceny conviction, a string of prior arrests, alleged ties to the Trinitarios gang, and a claim that he may know something about the shooting of a federal officer last year.

President Trump went further at a rally, calling Belgal “wanted for possible murder,” even though the Daily News reports he has never been arrested for murder or attempted murder or officially named a murder suspect.

Belgal was indicted in December on drug sale charges, one count in the second degree and nine in the third degree, and that case is still pending. Maybe he is a drug dealer. Maybe he isn’t. But was he dealing drugs at 4 p.m. on a Thursday while pulling into a parking space? That’s precisely why we have something called due process, and an indictment, a rap sheet, or a politician’s rally speech doesn’t entitle anyone to put a bullet in a man’s neck on a busy New York City street.

As of Sunday, Belgal was sitting in a solitary cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn with that bullet still lodged in his neck. His lawyers describe the conditions as deplorable, saying the left side of his face is numb, he can barely hear out of his left ear, and doctors told him he urgently needs surgery that was too risky to attempt Thursday night without a specialist.

Belgal also told them he hasn’t eaten a meal since Thursday and that the only water he’s been given comes from a bathroom sink. Judge Paul Oetken has barred the feds from removing Belgal from the country without his approval and ordered that he stay in New York or New Jersey, which at least puts a leash on them.

Let’s not forget Belgal’s 5-year-old son, who was in the backseat when his father was shot by masked and disguised agents. His mother told the New York Times that he’s having nightmares and hasn’t spoken since the shooting. Governor Hochul says the mother described him as normally outgoing and talkative. She’s also terrified ICE will come for the family again, to the point that Hochul felt the need to tell her Trump had confirmed ICE wouldn’t return. A family needed a presidential assurance that the agency that shot the father in front of his kid wouldn’t be back. And I trust a Trump assurance about as much as I trust a gas station hot dog I found in the restroom.

Make no mistake about who the victims are here. Whatever Belgal ultimately answers for in a courtroom, he was shot, left bleeding, and locked in solitary without proper care, and his 5-year-old son lost his voice watching it happen. Meanwhile, an agent whom judges have repeatedly caught with false or contradicted paperwork is still out there with a badge and a rifle, because in this administration the person who gets protected isn’t the child.

(Sources)