ICE Officer at Upper Manhattan Shooting Faced Repeated Federal Court Challenges

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who was at the scene of Thursday’s shooting in Upper Manhattan has repeatedly faced federal court allegations involving unlawful arrests and the use of force during arrests in New York and Minneapolis, a WIRED investigation found.

What happened during the Marble Hill shooting

On Thursday afternoon, ICE agents shot a man identified by city authorities as Oscar Bergal in Manhattan’s Marble Hill neighborhood, near the Bronx. Mayor Zoran Mamdani said witnesses reported that investigators surrounded Bergal’s car, which had a 5-year-old child inside, and fired multiple shots—possibly as many as seven, according to local media reports. The New York City Police Department said Bergal was hospitalized. He was reportedly shot in the neck. The child appeared unharmed.

Video from the scene shows a man wearing a high-visibility yellow construction vest carrying a modified AR-15-style rifle equipped with a pistol grip, sling and holographic sight. Court documents, social media posts and other publicly available information reviewed by WIRED identify the man as Brenden Kuni.

Who is Brenden Kuni?

Kuni is a supervisor with ICE’s National Fugitive Operations Team. He was involved in several arrests in the New York City area and Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge last winter.

Law enforcement sources told WIRED that Kuni identified himself to New York City police officers as an ICE agent and was the only federal officer shown on video brandishing a weapon at the scene.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents were attempting to arrest a person from the Dominican Republic whom the agency described as being in the country illegally and having a prior grand larceny conviction.

Federal court allegations involving ICE arrests

WIRED’s review of federal court cases, social media posts and other public records found that Kuni has repeatedly been involved in disputed ICE street arrests in New York and elsewhere.

Court filings accuse him of using a Taser on a handcuffed man. Activists also say Kuni was among the staff members who pushed a pregnant woman to the ground during an operation in Minneapolis.

In recent months, federal judges have repeatedly found arrests involving Kuni to be unlawful. One judge described an arrest warrant he signed as “fraudulent.” Another said video evidence contradicted his sworn account of an arrest. In a third case, the government withdrew his sworn statement, calling it inaccurate.

Kuni’s ICE and DHS career

Kuni has worked as a Department of Homeland Security agent for nearly 10 years. According to a court declaration he signed, he began his federal law enforcement career as a Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agent in San Diego in 2018. He became an ICE deportation officer in 2020, was promoted to detention and deportation supervisor in December 2024, and joined the National Fugitive Operations Team in May 2025.

His employment history before joining DHS remains unknown. Felician University, a private Catholic university in New Jersey, listed him on its 2018 baseball roster. The roster identifies his hometown as New Rochelle, a suburb north of the Bronx.