Status Coup was on the ground as crowds began protesting in the streets after yet another ICE-related shooting. We cannot do this reporting without the support of our readers and viewers Status Coup is the scrappy, guerrilla journalists delivering ON-THE-GROUND justice journalism in a country suffocating in propaganda, infotainment, and tribal bullshit delivered to your TV, computers, and phones. WE NEED MORE SUPPORT to stay ON-THE-GROUND. SUPPORT for as low as $5/month. You can also DONATE to our cause.
Another violent ICE-involved shooting took place on Oct. 8 — and a familiar face from past dubious ICE violence was on the scene with a long gun and no identifying markers of being an ICE agent.
The person in question is ICE supervisor Brenden Cuni, who, aside from being an avid fan of shooting guns for fun, has a checkered, documented past as a member of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including being on the scene during 2025’s Operation Metro Surge last winter when a woman, whom protesters claimed was pregnant at the time, was seen being dragged on an ice shelf by ICE agents.
Many activists have linked Cuni to both incidents, with stills from video captured from both scenes. ICE has not confirmed that they are Cuni.
Court records, including testimony from a Homeland Security Investigations agent, identify Cuni as leading the Dec. 15, 2025, operation where the woman was dragged. Using videos and images of the incident shared on social media, Status Coup identified the person carrying a gun as Cuni. Video shows him briefly on top of the woman before standing to brandish pepper spray at onlookers. Those gathered to protest repeatedly yell “She’s pregnant!” Another agent kneels on the woman who is face-down on the ICE.
Photos also show Cuni at the scene of the Oct. 8 shooting in New York, wearing a reflective vest and clutching an AR-style rifle. It is the only unholstered weapon visible at the scene, though officials and publicly available evidence do not specify who fired the shots that wounded 28-year-old Oscar Belgal.
New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference Thursday night after the shooting that two plainclothes federal agents, one with a weapon drawn, could be seen on surveillance video approaching Belgal’s car. The agents moved out of the camera’s view before at least one agent fired seven shots.
Status Coup’s Jon Farina and Michelle Dao quickly rushed to Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood after reports of an ICE-involved shooting began to permeate another protest in New York City. Once there, it was discovered that Belgal was shot in the neck inside his car after ICE agents approached his car in various states of dress.
Additionally, a 5-year-old child in the backseat of the car was reportedly shot by ICE agents; the child was in the car because school had recently let out for the day. The child, who is believed to be Belgal’s son, was unharmed; Belgal was shot in the neck and taken to the hospital.
It is unclear who fired shots into Belgal’s vehicle. As of Friday, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Belgal cannot be removed from the U.S. and cannot be transferred to any ICE detention facility outside of southern or eastern New York or New Jersey without the court’s approval.
NONE of those states of dress identified the people approaching the car as ICE agents. According to New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, an ICE agent approached the driver’s side of the car in plain clothes and with a weapon drawn. Later, witnesses said they heard multiple shots ringing out on streets where adults and children were outside.
“They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces. There was no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents,” NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during a late Thursday night press conference. “School had just gotten out. The street was crowded with families and children.”
According to 2020 demographic data from the City of New York, 71.5 percent of Marble Hill’s residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.
As for Cuni, his involvement in ICE operations is well-documented:
In Minnesota in 2025, Cuni was an ICE supervisor during “Operation Metro Surge,” where, during this ICE occupation of an American city, a woman was seen dragged along the icy streets. The video showed Cuni on the scene while other ICE agents were handcuffing the woman, and she was being pinned down and unable to get up.
Additionally, in December 2025, Cuni allegedly wrongfully detained a U.S. citizen “because he looked Somali,” and later cooked up a false report after not being able to find anything on the person after “five searches.” The man was later identified as Angel Almonte, a Dominican immigrant. “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,” Long Island U.S. District Court Judge Gary Brown wrote in a 28-page ruling on Monday, Oct. 5.
A petition filed in 2026 alleges that Cuni stopped a 21-year-old man in the Bronx, causing him to “fall face-first onto the pavement, fell on top of him, handcuffed him before repeatedly using a Taser while he was already on the ground, and later referred to him as ‘maldito Mexicano,’ meaning ‘fucking Mexican.’”
In August 2026, a judge ruled that an ICE-related arrest involving Cuni was done unlawfully, due to issues with Cuni’s provided statements. In this incident, Fernando Fabian Chaglla was detained, and Cuni, as the supervisor, provided an account that was “largely” contradicted by a neighbor’s doorbell camera footage, ruling the arrest unlawful.
Cuni also has a fixation on guns — his pubic Instagram account, with the handle shooter.914, shows various weapons, photos of watches, liquor, flasks, and energy drinks. According to reports, Cuni is a resident of New Rochelle, NY. He was also previously a high school prep baseball player at a private Catholic university.
For their part, DHS and its chief, Markwayne Mullin, said ICE operations will not stop in NYC, despite calls to stop their occupation of NYC from city and state officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul. “New Yorkers are outraged tonight. Immigrant communities are terrified. And we are demanding answers,’ Hochul said in a statement on Thursday.
Mullin blamed Hochul, Mamdani, and others for not helping with ICE agents, while calling Belgal “the worst of the worst.”
Status Coup is the scrappy, guerrilla journalists delivering ON-THE-GROUND justice journalism in a country suffocating in propaganda, infotainment, and tribal bullshit delivered to your TV, computers, and phones. WE NEED MORE SUPPORT to stay ON-THE-GROUND. SUPPORT for as low as $5/month. You can also DONATE to our cause.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the ICE agent who fired into the car and injured the man DID NOT KNOW there was a 5-year-old boy inside. Said, like always, the ICE agent feared for his life as the man weaponized his vehicle. He fired at a moving vehicle on a crowded city street, in other words, blindly. Mullin further said that sanctuary cities are to blame, of course.