Social media posts from independent journalists have alleged that the ICE supervisor, Brenden Cuni, was present during the New York City shooting. Brenden Cuni, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervisor, has drawn attention online after a federal agent shot and wounded a man during an operation in New York City’s Marble Hill neighborhood on October 8. The person shot was identified as Oscar Belgal. A man is detained after a shooting reportedly involving US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in New York City, US, October 8, 2026.
Stephanie/Handout via REUTERS (via REUTERS)After the shooting incident, social media users circulated images and claims identifying Cuni as one of the agents present at the scene. Notably, authorities have not publicly identified the officer who fired the weapon, and there is no independently verified evidence establishing that Cuni was the shooter. Deep DiveThe New York Police Department said the shooting occurred at around 4 p.m. in Marble Hill, near West 225th Street. The department confirmed that federal law enforcement agents were involved and stressed that NYPD officers neither participated in the incident nor were present when the shooting occurred. The person who was shot was taken to a nearby hospital and remained conscious, according to the NYPD. Local media and independent reporters subsequently reported that an ICE officer had fired at the man during an enforcement operation. DHS said in a statement that the ICE agents were conducting a targeted operation to arrest a man from the Dominican Republic who they allege was living in the United States illegally. According to the agency, the ICE officer discharged his weapon during the process, hence, injuring the man. Also read: Trump chief of staff’s daughter Katie Wiles photographed with pro-Russia politician amid Bosnia lobbying rowWho is Brenden Cuni?Cuni is identified by New York Daily News as a supervisory detention and deportation officer with ICE. The report stated that Cuni was involved in a case where federal judge ripped ICE agents for giving false testimony to justify violent immigrant arrests. A profile shared online by NYC City Hall reporter for Jewish Insider, Will Bredderman, identifies him as an amateur shooting sports competitor registered with the Precision Rifle Series under ID 13823. The profile lists New York as his location and New England as his competition region. Its match history includes the New England Centerfire Finale in Catskill, New York, in October 2025 and several other competitions. Separately, an October 8 posts on X by independent journalists Talia Jane and Ali Winston alleged that Cuni was among the agents present during the Marble Hill operation. “One of the agents on scene is Brenden Cuni. ICE ERO, supervisor with the National Fugitive Operations Team. Cuni, an Iona Prep graduate from New Rochelle, has been all over thr NYC region & was in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge,” Winston wrote in an X post. Cuni’s name also appears in earlier ICE controversiesCuni has previously faced lawsuits over separate immigration enforcement operations. In June, The Guardian reported that immigrants had named him in lawsuits alleging excessive force during arrests in New York. One lawsuit alleged that Cuni repeatedly used a Taser on a 21-year-old man during an arrest in the Bronx. The man alleged that agents knocked him to the ground and that Cuni discharged the stun gun several times. The New York Daily News reported on October 6 that Judge Gary Brown questioned the government’s account and the handling of an arrest warrant. The judge involved in the case had said, “Cuni attempted to reconcile these falsehoods by subsequently collecting the information, adding it to those systems and, after issuing the warrant, searching the databases again to ‘find’ him.”Shirin Gupta is a content producer with the Hindustan Times. She covers everything between politics, entertainment and sports at the US desk. Shirin got interested in political journalism during her time as a web editor at her college newspaper NCC News in Syracuse when she first started seeing the effects of national politics in life of her fellow colleagues.
Shirin has worked on a wide range of fast-moving and developing stories locally when she was at NCC editing accessible reports for the audience.
Her current role requires her to track real-time updates, verify information and present balanced coverage across diverse beats. Covering US politics from an international newsroom perspective has further deepened her understanding of how domestic decisions can have far-reaching global consequences.
With a keen interest in international affairs, Shirin continues to build her expertise in geopolitics, policy shifts, and cross-border developments. She aims to learn and evolve her reporting in matters of geopolitics and international issues.
Outside the newsroom Shirin writes about books and music for her personal blog. She is an avid consumer of pop culture and reveres literature. Read More