The New York Times described what happened when a plain clothes officer, with a drawn gun, approached the SUV driven by Dominican immigrant Oscar Belgal: “As the boy sat in the backseat, officers in plain clothes surrounded the car, Mr. Belgal accelerated and at least one of the officers fired seven shots, according to Jessica S. Tisch, the commissioner of the New York Police Department.”
Thank goodness the New York City boy was unharmed physically. But the mental wounds seem severe. “He’s having nightmares,” the boy’s mother told The Times on Friday. “He went through something he shouldn’t have gone through.”
Who wouldn’t be traumatized witnessing an ICE agent fire seven rounds into a car and wound your father in the neck, while sitting in the backseat? But the fact that it was a five-year-old going through such an ordeal makes it all the more horrific.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on social media Friday that the boy’s mother said her child will not talk now. “She told me he’s normally so outgoing and talkative. Now he won’t speak,” Hochul said.
“She was also terrified ICE would come after her family again,” Hochul continued. She said she let the mother know that Donald Trump had confirmed that ICE would not be returning for her family.
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