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.
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 Dive
Who is Brenden Cuni, and what was his reported role in the Marble Hill operation?
Has Brenden Cuni been identified as the ICE officer who shot Oscar Belgal?
What was Oscar Belgal’s condition after the Marble Hill shooting?
The 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.
{{/usCountry}}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.
{{/usCountry}}Who 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.
Another Independent Journalist Talia Jane also shared an image of Cuni on X and pointed out, “It’s being reported that ICE agent Brendan Cuni (seen here) shot someone in the Bronx today.” Jane has also previously alleged that Cuni was present at at previous ICE-related violence in NYC and Staten Island. In an X post from February, Jane wrote, “ICE agent Brendan Cuni is back in NYC. Spotted today kidnapping people in Port Richmond (Staten Island), masked but still easily recognizable. 2 months ago in Minneapolis he was documented among ICE agents brutalizing a pregnant woman."
Cuni’s name also appears in earlier ICE controversies
Cuni 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.”