ICE agent who shot man in car in NYC has history of violent arrest lawsuits

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent at the scene who opened fire into a vehicle with a five-year-old child Thursday has an alleged history of making violent arrests.

The Shooting

In a violent incident Thursday afternoon, plainclothes federal immigration agents fired at least seven rounds into a car in Marble Hill, a residential neighborhood of New York City. Inside the vehicle sat Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Bronx resident, and a five-year-old boy believed to be his son, Gothamist reported. Belgal was shot in the neck and hospitalized, and the child was reportedly unharmed.

The Agent

Wired identified Brendan Cuni as one of the ICE officers present during the incident. Photographs from the scene showed Cuni in the aftermath of the shooting, wearing a high-visibility yellow construction vest and carrying an AR-15–style rifle. He was disguised as a construction worker and was in no way identifiable as a federal agent.

Cuni has been named in multiple lawsuits alleging violent arrests in New York City and beyond, Wired reported:

• Last October: A Bronx man claimed that Cuni tripped him hard enough to crack a tooth and used a Taser on him six times while he was already handcuffed on the ground.
• November: Cuni was involved in an arrest in Queens where ICE agents reportedly tackled and shocked a man with a Taser.
• December: Cuni was deployed in Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge. Activists allege that he was among officers who forced a pregnant woman to the ground, though this was not confirmed by Wired.
• During his stint in the Midwest: Prosecutors charged a man with assaulting Cuni, but a judge found there was "weak" evidence, and no other agents could corroborate Cuni's story.

In at least three separate cases, judges have found issues with Cuni's statements or arrest paperwork.

Response and Aftermath

Protesters gathered outside the local hospital where Belgal was taken. "Don't forget, don't forgive, Brendan Cuni shot a kid!" they chanted, according to a video shared on X by The Intercept's Noah Horowitz.

At a press conference Thursday night, Democratic Representative Adriano Espaillat said that he'd attempted to visit Belgal in the hospital but had been blocked by federal agents. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that ICE had taken Belgal into custody and that his discussions with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to have him released had been "unsuccessful."

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Belgal had a previous criminal conviction, multiple prior arrests, and ties to a violent gang.

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Nobel Peace Prize Winner Navi Pillay Jokes About Sharing Award With Trump

Navi Pillay, the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, took an immediate shot at President Trump after she learned she had won the award Friday.

The former South African judge and United Nations human rights high commissioner gave an impromptu speech at Nuremberg Court in Germany, where she was attending an academic and legal conference after she received the news.

"Thank you very much. If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," she said. The room erupted in laughter.

Trump's Long Quest for the Prize

Trump has been practically begging for a Nobel Peace Prize for years, especially since it was awarded to then-President Barack Obama in 2009. Last year, he phoned Norway's Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg "out of the blue" to ask about the possibility of acquiring the prize, using tariffs as a cover for their discussion.

"Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS," Trump said in another message to Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, "I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America."

Last October, Trump told the press "They gave it to Obama for absolutely destroying our country," during an Oval Office meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubb. "My election was much more important."

This year, Trump has pretended to stop caring about the award altogether, although that may change when he gets wind of Pillay's comments.

Pillay's Remarks

"Just to be at this venue.… Your applause means a great deal to me. You don't want to receive an award, prize, or anything, unless the public agrees that you deserve this. So that's how I appreciate your applause today," Pillay said in her remarks. "Being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify [this announcement]. I think it's very appropriate that I'm with friends and colleagues, all of whom support human rights. The last thing I did [was] the delivery of the report on Gaza naming what's happening there as genocide."

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Trump Claims He Never Invited Iran to Bomb U.S. Cities—But He Did, Three Times

Either Donald Trump is playing dumb with the American people, or there actually is something wrong with him.

The president turned to Truth Social Thursday to dispel fears surrounding his recent taunts to Iran, insisting via a social media post that he had not invited "the enemy to bomb San Diego and Los Angeles."

But he did. Three times.

The Three Instances

Monday — Grand Island, Nebraska: Trump first told the world that Iran should bomb the two major Californian metropoles during a midterm campaign rally.

"I want to see a tremendous victory," Trump said then. "You want to see a tremendous victory because it verifies all the things we did. And again, remember, with the war, it's just artificial. It's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe."

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"They can take out a city. Let them take, let them take out Los Angeles; let them take out San Diego," Trump continued as the packed-out arena cheered. "That's—this is a very small price to pay, and it's going to be over with very soon. It's essentially almost over with.… But it's going to end very soon. And it'll end one way or the other. And your gas and your gasoline and all of the things."

Wednesday — Texas: Trump repeated the threat, telling another fawning MAGA crowd: "I said it the other day, let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles."

Wednesday night — Speaking with reporters: For whatever reason, Trump felt compelled to solicit a foreign adversary to attack America for a third time.

"I say it all the time, let's see what would happen if Iran ever did anything to Los Angeles or San Diego. I'm talking about through missiles. You want to see problems, let them hit Los Angeles or San Diego," Trump said.

The Walk-Back

But writing on his social media platform hours later, Trump claimed that reports of his own words were the result of "fake and artificial news" and that the comments were made in relation to the "temporary increase in the price of Gasoline," which he suggested online was "a small price to pay for Iran not having a Nuclear Weapon."

"And, if you want to see a big price, can you imagine what it would be like if they bombed San Diego and/or Los Angeles? All I was doing was making a comparison between paying a little more, for a short time, for Gasoline, versus the bombing of our Major Cities," Trump wrote, adding that "everybody knew that."

If Trump actually did mean to discuss the country's current military efforts and its corresponding (and unfortunate) toll on oil and gas prices, then his attempts to do so were so bizarre and confounding that their sole communicative success was in denigrating the office of the president.

Read about what Trump said: Trump Says He Really Does Want Iran to Bomb San Diego and Los Angeles

Katie Wiles, Daughter of Trump Chief of Staff, Linked to Pro-Russia Balkan Regime

Yet another person with close ties to Donald Trump's White House has been linked to a pro-Russia Balkan regime.

Katie Wiles, daughter of Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, works for a political lobbying firm that has a $35,000-per-month contract to represent a small self-governing territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina known as Republika Srpska. She traveled there as recently as August.

The Photograph

A photograph circulated by Evi Kokalari, a conservative Albanian American activist, showed the younger Wiles wielding a rifle and standing next to a man that CBS News identified as Željko Budimir, the interior minister of Republika Srpska. The image appeared to have been initially posted to Wiles's Instagram story with the caption "mostly work + some serious fun!"

Continental Strategy, Wiles's employer, confirmed to CBS that she traveled to Republika Srpska in August, but said she has not lobbied the U.S. government on its behalf. As of Thursday afternoon, Wiles's page on her company's website was inaccessible.

Broader Controversy

This news comes as MAGA world has turned its ire on two of the president's closest advisers, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, who took time out of their presumably busy pre-midterm elections schedules to travel to the Balkans to assist in that territory's elections. The two men were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each to provide counsel on voting issues to the government, which is led by far-right nationalists. Republika Srpska is closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has made a considerable effort to make inroads with Trump and his allies.

Both LaCivita and Blair are connected to Susie Wiles—but even the famed "ice maiden" reportedly couldn't protect them from the White House's ire. Trump tried to distance himself from his beloved strategists, claiming that Blair and LaCivita were "outside consultants," but his chief of staff's child may be harder to disown.