New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called Immigration and Customs Enforcement 'rotten to its core' as he demanded the agency leave the Big Apple amid massive protests after an agent shot a father in the car with his young child inside.

Hundreds of outraged residents flocked to the Marble Hill section of the Bronx, where Oscar Belgal, 28, was shot inside his gray Honda CRV earlier in the day, chanting 'Murderers!' 'F**k ICE' and 'ICE out of the Bronx.'

In one heated exchange, more than a dozen people were said to have grabbed and pinned a masked ICE agent against a wall when he got too close to the police tape lining the street, the New York Daily News reports.

'Take the mask off!' the residents screamed, before the agent was saved by NYPD officers, who swooped in and pulled him back behind the police tape.

Protesters were also seen apparently blocking Homeland Security agents from responding to the scene.

At least one protester has since been arrested, according to the New York Post.  

'This city wants ICE out,' the mayor declared as the protests raged. 'All they do is terrorize this city.' 

'There is no justification for what we’ve seen today,' he added. 

The mayor then went on to describe how masked ICE agents donning construction vests surrounded Oscar Belgal's gray Honda CRV as schools were letting out shortly after 4pm, when at least one agent opened fire.

The 28-year-old victim was then struck in the neck below the left ear, according to New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. 

At least seven shell casings were then recovered from the scene.

Mamdani called the incident 'unconscionable and incredibly serious' in a post on social media, saying his 'thoughts are with the injured New Yorker and his family tonight. We are praying for his recovery.'

He said he later spoke with Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to demand that they remove ICE agents from the city - but he said his efforts were unsuccessful.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul also shared on social media that she, too, spoke with Trump and Mullin about the shooting. 

'I expressed outrage on behalf of New Yorkers and urged them to halt ICE enforcement operations in New York,' she wrote. 

'I also asked that any body camera footage of the shooting be released to the public so we can establish the facts and get to the truth.' 

Department of Homeland Security officials have said agents were 'conducting a targeted enforcement operation' targeting a Dominican man with a prior criminal conviction for grand larceny and multiple other arrests for assault, robbery, possession of drugs and weapons possession when the shooting occurred. 

The undocumented man is also said to have connections with the Trinitarios gang, the same gang that was responsible for the killing of a Customs and Border Patrol officer last year, and federal agents were said to be investigating whether Belgal had ties to the migrant moped gang shooting.

'This criminal illegal alien was arrested by the NYPD on December 7, 2023, but was released into the community a few days later by reckless Democrat sanctuary policies that put American lives at risk,' the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on social media.

'When dangerous illegal aliens are released back onto the streets by radical sanctuary politicians, our officers are forced to make arrests at large in the community in unpredictable and dangerous environments,' it continued. 

'Our officers should not have to risk their lives, and innocent Americans should not have to face unnecessary danger, because sanctuary politicians refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement.' 

Footage from the scene of the shooting obtained by the Daily News showed police officers carrying a wounded Belgal from a silver SUV and putting him in the back of a black car, which sped off.

One man in a construction vest with a badge around his neck was also seen in the footage roaming the area holding a semi-automatic rifle to keep bystanders at bay.

Belgal is now in the hospital, where police officers said he is conscious and receiving medical attention. His wounds are not considered life-threatening, law enforcement sources told the New York Post. 

A five-year-old was also said to have been in the vehicle at the time of the shooting, but was uninjured.

Witnesses described how the neighborhood descended into chaos after they heard gunshots.

'I only heard four shots, but I thought it was a car backfiring,' one woman told ABC 7. 

'I thought "No, that's definitely gunshots," so I ran to my window and all of a sudden I heard cops running, not walking down the streets, followed shortly thereafter by more cops and then more cops and ICE agents. Everybody was running,' she recounted.

'I think it's horrifying.'

Another witness told the Post how he was shopping when someone alerted them to the shooting.

'And then I came out and there was someone on the ground in handcuffs,' he said. 'There was a guy holding a gun up, looking around in case someone wanted to interfere. He was ICE.'

Iris Rosa, 67, also told the outlet she saw the victim appear to go in and out of consciousness in the aftermath.

'I heard the gunshots from my apartment, came outside, saw that it was a man running from this area with an assault rifle... they had the man on the floor with his hands behind his back,' she said. 'He was screaming that they're going to kill him, that he's going to die, that he doesn't want to die.

'The five-year-old boy was screaming for his father,' she added. 

Homeland Security and the FBI are responding to the scene in addition to the NYPD. 

The shooting comes just days after a coalition of West Bronx and Upper Manhattan officials sent a letter urging the owners of the Shops at Marble Hill to prohibit federal immigration agents from using the plaza's Target parking lot as a staging area for enforcement activity. 

'This is private property operated by or for Target, where our neighbors shop, work and bring their families,' the lawmakers said in their letter on Monday, according to the Bronx Times.

'In a borough home to hundreds of thousands of immigrants, our residents should not have to fear that their neighborhood shops are being used as a staging ground for immigration enforcement.'

The Target is located just across the street from where the shooting is said to have occurred.

Some local officials are now demanding an independent investigation into the shooting. 

'I am demanding all body camera footage and evidence to be preserved, a full investigation with full cooperation from the federal government and accountability,' Congressman Adriano Espaillat said, arguing: 'ICE is a rogue agency that must be reigned in.' 

At a press conference on Thursday night, the congressman also shared that he had spoken with the family of the victim and they are left 'shaken.' 

But when he went to visit the victim in the hospital, Espaillat said he was not allowed in the room. 

The New York City Council Progressive Caucus also said it was 'outraged by the horrific news that ICE agents have shot our neighbor, a fellow New Yorker in the Bronx.'

'This is a terrifying, violent reminder of the immediate danger that the Trump regime poses to our city and our immigrant community,' the caucus continued.

'We must abolish ICE and hold those fascists accountable for the terror they are inflicting. We need ICE out of our city now.'

Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of New York Immigration Coalition, added that: 'ICE's violent tactics are a clear danger to all New Yorkers, as today's shooting in a residential neighborhood demonstrates.

'This incident is another reminder of the unchecked, rampant violence ICE has been spreading throughout our communities,' he argued.