New York Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier told Twitch streamer Hasan Piker that it “doesn’t even matter” that the man shot by an ICE officer during a targeted arrest had a criminal record. The remarks focused on Oscar Belgal, a 28-year-old Dominican Republic national federal authorities say was in the country illegally.

Fox News Digital reported that Chevalier made the comments Saturday while criticizing NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch for highlighting Belgal’s background instead of condemning the shooting. The exchange quickly became a flashpoint over immigration enforcement, use of force, and how political candidates talk about suspects with long rap sheets.

For conservatives watching the case, the stakes are plain. Federal officers tried to take a man into custody. Officials say he refused lawful orders. Shots were fired. A House hopeful then waved off the criminal history as irrelevant to the public debate.

What officials say happened in the arrest attempt

Belgal was the target of an ICE arrest operation last week in New York. Department of Homeland Security officials said he refused to comply with officers’ lawful orders. They also said he had a prior grand larceny conviction and previous arrests for assault, robbery, drug possession, and weapons possession, plus ties to the Trinitarios street gang.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch spoke late Thursday near the shooting site. She said Belgal pulled his vehicle forward before at least one officer fired seven rounds, striking him below the left ear. Tisch also said Belgal had two prior arrests, including for robbery and the criminal sale of a controlled substance.

The New York Post reported that federal officials went further on the vehicle threat. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations official Marcos Charles said Belgal accelerated, smashed into two government ICE vehicles, then drove toward other officers.

"He then accelerated his vehicle, smashing into two of our government ICE vehicles and then weaponized his vehicle and proceeded to accelerate, going towards other officers."

The Post also reported Belgal was hit in the neck, treated, and taken into federal custody. Officials there described the shooting as self-defense and said Belgal had prior New York charges and convictions involving grand larceny, theft, robbery, and being armed with a deadly weapon. He was on probation and faced a pending DHS detainer, the Post reported.

Homeland Security figures quoted in that coverage framed the public reaction around Belgal’s record, not only the gunfire. One official called for scrutiny of the man they described as a criminal and gang member rather than treating him as a symbol detached from his history. Readers tracking other charged encounters with immigration officers may recall coverage of a Fresno case involving an off-duty ICE agent in a separate dispute.

Chevalier’s Saturday remarks to Hasan Piker

Chevalier did not treat that record as central. On Saturday she told Piker she had reviewed Tisch’s remarks and still rejected the focus on Belgal’s past. She said she grew angry listening to the commissioner’s update.

"I have gone back to her remarks to make sure that I was correct in our statement about it. But to me, it doesn’t even matter, right? It doesn’t even matter."

She also accused Tisch of using the briefing to paint Belgal as a villain rather than condemning ICE or the shooting itself.

"Police Commissioner Tisch came out, and I understand that it is her role to provide more information, and that is why she comes to these press conferences. But rather than condemn ICE, rather than condemn the shooting or the events that had just taken place, she started to villainize Oscar, right? Villainize him, and, by extension, villainize anyone who was in his position."

Piker pressed the criminal-history angle from the other direction. He asked what rap sheet Tisch was citing and whether authorities were using it to validate the ICE stop. A Fox News video segment carried the same exchange, underscoring Chevalier’s line that the record should not drive the argument.

"What is the rap sheet for this person that Jessica Tisch is alleging is this criminal, and that the ICE apprehension was valid from that perspective?"

Fox News Digital reached out to Chevalier’s campaign for comment and did not immediately receive a response. Chevalier is a New York Democratic House candidate. Piker is a Twitch streamer who hosted the conversation.

Partisan fights over crime, immigration, and public safety have marked other races as well, including sharp clashes like the one in which JD Vance criticized a Michigan Senate nominee’s response after a violent attack.

NYPD defends releasing criminal history

An NYPD spokesperson pushed back on the idea that Tisch had crossed a line by discussing Belgal’s record. The department said criminal history is standard in incident updates when available, and that reporters routinely ask for it.

"The Police commissioner was giving a factual update on the incident, and we always provide criminal history in incident updates if we have it. It’s also one of the first questions that every media outlet asks the NYPD."

That posture matters in any officer-involved shooting. The public gets a timeline, a description of movement and force, and whatever charging history agencies will confirm. Investigators still have to resolve remaining questions about compliance, vehicle movement, and the precise sequence of the seven rounds. Authorities have not publicly laid out a full medical status beyond the wound location and later reports that Belgal was treated and taken into federal custody.

Immigration custody cases can escalate quickly when a stop turns into a use-of-force review, a pattern also seen when a visa overstay led to ICE custody after a boardwalk confrontation in another recent enforcement story.

Republicans call the comments a party tell

New York State Republican Committee communications director David Laska did not say much about Chevalier’s appearance with Piker. He cast the facts as a noncompliant illegal immigrant and known gang member meeting lawful force, then tied Chevalier’s rhetoric to a broader indictment of her party.

"The facts of this case are clear: An illegal immigrant and known gang member resisted arrest and was met with lawful use of force from our brave ICE agents."

Laska went further on the politics.

"The new face of the Democratic Party went on a podcast hosted by a radical who believes America deserved 9/11 to openly side with the illegal immigrant gang member, further proof that today’s Democratic Party is extremist and anti-American to its core."

He added that voters would remember in November. Fox News Digital carried those statements as the GOP response to Chevalier’s Saturday comments.

Violent crime coverage elsewhere keeps the same pressure on officials to name suspects, records, and next steps, whether in a deadly Erie shooting and standoff or other multi-victim cases that demand clear accountability.

What remains unsettled in the public record

Federal authorities have described a targeted arrest, noncompliance, a moving vehicle, and gunfire that struck Belgal below the left ear. DHS has listed illegal presence, a grand larceny conviction, multiple prior arrests, and alleged Trinitarios ties. Tisch described two prior arrests and the seven-round volley. Post reporting added the claim that the SUV struck government vehicles and moved toward officers before the shooting, and that Belgal later entered federal custody after treatment.

Investigators will need to determine the full second-by-second sequence of the stop, the vehicle path, and every officer’s firing decision. Authorities have not publicly released a complete DHS statement transcript or a full Tisch conference transcript in the material summarized here. No public results have been released in that package about every prior case disposition beyond the convictions and arrests already listed.

Chevalier’s campaign silence after the Fox News Digital inquiry leaves her Saturday words as the clearest record of her position: the criminal history, in her view, does not matter to how the shooting should be judged. Republicans argue that position tells voters exactly where the candidate stands when ICE faces resistance from a man federal officials call a gang-linked illegal immigrant.

Shooting cases always test whether institutions will state hard facts about records and resistance, or sand them down for politics, a tension familiar from other local gun violence stories such as a Gaston County home shooting with multiple victims.

Lawful force, public records, and the campaign trail

Use-of-force law turns on the threat officers reasonably perceived in the moment, not on a campaign debate stage. Still, candidates shape what the public is told to ignore. Chevalier told a national streamer audience that Belgal’s record should not drive the narrative. NYPD said releasing that history is routine. DHS and ICE described noncompliance, a dangerous vehicle, and a subject they link to serious prior crime and a street gang.

That clash is now part of a House race and a wider fight over immigration enforcement in New York. When officers fire during an arrest, the public is owed facts about who the target was, what he did in the stop, and what the law allowed. Soft-pedaling a rap sheet does not make the underlying conduct disappear.

Ballots still reward candidates who treat officer safety and illegal reoffense risk as real, not optional talking points.