An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervisor, Brenden Cuni, has been identified as an agent present at a shooting in New York City's Marble Hill neighborhood, near the Bronx, on Thursday. Cuni, who was seen brandishing a modified AR-15-style rifle at the scene, has a history of allegations of unlawful arrests and excessive force in federal court cases across New York and Minneapolis.
The incident on Thursday involved ICE agents surrounding a vehicle in which Oscar Belgal and a 5-year-old child were present. Witnesses reported hearing as many as seven gunshots. Belgal was hospitalized after reportedly being shot in the neck, while the child was unharmed. The Department of Homeland Security stated that ICE agents were attempting to apprehend an undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic with a prior conviction for grand larceny.
Cuni, who identified himself as an ICE agent to NYPD officers, was the sole federal agent captured on video openly carrying a weapon at the scene. He is a supervisor with ICE's National Fugitive Operations team and was involved in Operation Metro Surge last winter in both New York City and Minneapolis.
Federal court records and public information indicate Cuni has been repeatedly implicated in questionable street arrests. Allegations against him include using a Taser on a handcuffed man and, during an operation in Minneapolis, being one of the agents accused by activists of forcing a pregnant woman to the ground. While the identification of Cuni in the Minneapolis incident could not be independently confirmed, federal judges have recently found arrests involving him to be unlawful, with one judge describing a warrant he signed as "fraudulent" and another noting video evidence contradicted his sworn account of an arrest. In a third instance, the government withdrew Cuni's sworn statements due to inaccuracies.
Cuni's federal law enforcement career began in 2018 as a Border Patrol agent with Customs and Border Protection in San Diego. He became a deportation officer in 2020, was promoted to supervisory detention and deportation officer in December 2024, and joined the National Fugitive Operations team in May 2025. His pre-DHS work history is unclear, though he was listed on Felician University's 2018 baseball roster, with his hometown noted as New Rochelle, a suburb north of the Bronx.
In October of last year, a 21-year-old Bronx man's lawyers alleged that Cuni tripped him, causing a broken tooth, and then tased him approximately six times while he was handcuffed, also reportedly using a derogatory term. Medical records confirmed taser injuries. The following month, another man in Queens claimed ICE agents, including Cuni, tackled and tased him three times during an arrest. The arrest report acknowledged taser use but did not specify who deployed it.
Cuni was also present in Minneapolis last December during an attempt to arrest a woman who had spray-painted an ICE vehicle. A protester at the scene was charged with assaulting Cuni, with allegations that the protester tackled him after Cuni used pepper spray. This charge was later dismissed with prejudice by a judge, who cited weak evidence and the absence of a tackle in video reviews by federal officers.
Several federal cases this year have highlighted issues with Cuni's statements or arrest documentation. In one case, Judge Gary Brown of the Eastern District of New York found that Cuni signed a warrant stating database searches confirmed a Bronx man was undocumented, despite Cuni's own searches yielding no such results. ICE later added the man to databases to create the record Cuni had already claimed existed. Judge Brown ruled the arrest and detention illegal, criticizing Cuni's attempts to "reconcile these falsehoods."
In August, US District Judge Brian Cogan, also of New York’s Eastern District, ruled an arrest unlawful, stating that doorbell footage contradicted Cuni's account of Fernando Fabian Chaglla's arrest. Video showed Chaglla handcuffed within three minutes. Cuni had used a face-recognition app, Mobile Fortify, which showed no record of lawful entry but did indicate a federal work permit. Cuni interpreted the lack of entry records as evidence of undocumented status and admitted to handcuffing Chaglla before completing the warrant.
A week later, Cuni testified that he did not recall himself or his agents ever making a warrantless arrest, asserting that an I-200 form was issued prior to every arrest he was aware of. In June, government lawyers withdrew "inaccurate, sworn representations" made by Cuni and other officials in a third case, including a false claim that a detained man had missed ICE check-ins.
An Instagram account, previously "shooter.cuni" and now "shooter.914," appears to be associated with Cuni and features numerous photos and videos of him with firearms at shooting ranges. The account shows a mug seemingly from ICE's New York City Fugitive Operations team, a Rolex watch resembling one Cuni wore in videos from the Marble Hill shooting, and an AR-15-style rifle matching the one he wielded at the scene. Another photo from September 4 depicts a G.A. Precision Templar VII rifle with "Cuni" emblazoned on its stock. Cuni has not responded to requests for comment.
