Ms Rachel Points Out American Hypocrisy After a Child Watched His Dad Get Shot by ICE Officers

Children's presenter Ms Rachel criticised an ICE shooting in New York on Friday, 9 October 2026, involving a five-year-old boy. She said the child was 'deeply harmed' despite escaping physical injury, then questioned appeals for a more Christian America.

The shooting happened on Thursday afternoon in Marble Hill, Manhattan. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch identified the injured driver as Oscar Belgal, 28. She said a boy believed to be his son was inside the vehicle.

According to the NYPD briefing, at least one ICE officer fired seven rounds, striking Belgal in the neck below his left ear. Police took him to hospital in a stable condition. Officers later found the child safe with a family member.

Ms Rachel Questions Whether a Child Can Be Called 'Unharmed'

Rachel Griffin Accurso, better known as Ms Rachel, challenged descriptions of the boy as unharmed in an Instagram post.

'I keep seeing, 'Thankfully, the child was not harmed!' Thankfully, he was not physically harmed. But he was deeply harmed,' she wrote.

She also said the boy watched his father being shot and that the man was recovering in hospital. Police confirmed the child's presence inside the car, but not precisely what he witnessed.

Her argument centred on the difference between escaping physical injury and emerging unaffected by an experience. It was a moral judgement rather than a medical diagnosis. The reporting reviewed did not establish the boy's psychological condition through an independent clinical assessment.

Belgal's lawyer, Harold Solis, also expressed concern about the child's experience. 'You're not supposed to get shot in your car with your child sitting in the back. Period,' he told The Associated Press.

The police account described the confrontation, though not every moment. Tisch said surveillance cameras recorded two plainclothes federal officers approaching Belgal's Honda with guns drawn.

The vehicle moved forward and out of camera view. The cameras did not capture the shooting itself. Police recovered evidence indicating seven rounds had been fired, but the footage could not establish everything that happened before the gunfire.

For Ms Rachel, the child's physical safety was not the end of the discussion. Her criticism concerned what descriptions of the boy as unharmed might leave unsaid.

ICE Defends Shooting as Ms Rachel Challenges Christian Values

Federal officials defended the operation the following day. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said officers had not known a child was inside the car when they opened fire.

Marcos Charles, a senior ICE official, alleged that Belgal refused to leave his vehicle, struck two ICE vehicles and drove towards officers. He said the officers believed their safety was threatened.

Those allegations have not been independently established. The preliminary New York police account confirmed damage to an ICE vehicle, but the surveillance recording did not capture the shooting.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the operation. Attorney General Letitia James called for a 'full and transparent investigation.' The Bronx district attorney's office also began examining the incident. Whether the use of force was justified remains unresolved.

Ms Rachel broadened her criticism beyond New York, referring to immigration detention and children in Gaza.

'A society that harms children in detention centers, in our neighborhoods, and in Gaza is a society that has lost its moral compass and abandoned its humanity,' she wrote.

She also questioned appeals for America to embrace Christian values while children suffered. 'We often hear calls for America to be more of a Christian nation. Yet we terrorize God's precious children,' she wrote.

Her advocacy predates the shooting. In June, she met families outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey.

She later carried letters and drawings from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas to lawmakers in Washington.

Ms Rachel has defended speaking publicly about detention despite criticism of her political involvement. In an earlier interview, she declared, 'I am political,' before arguing that every child deserves equal love and care.