NYPD Shoves Soon-to-be Congresswoman, Clears Way for ICE at Protest Outside Allen Hospital

INWOOD — A member of the New York City Police Department hurled a soon-to-be congresswoman to the ground last night at a heated demonstration outside Allen Hospital, where a man was receiving treatment after an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot him hours prior.

Darializa Avila Chevalier was trying to de-escalate tensions as protestors clashed in a raucous tug-of-war over police barricades that officers were setting up to make way for ICE vehicles to exit the hospital parking lot.

Amid the chaos, an officer tripped over a woman who was on the ground in handcuffs, lost his balance, and fell.

As Chevalier checked to see if the woman was okay, another cop swooped in and barreled right through the five-foot-seven Democratic congressional nominee, knocking her into a reporter for the Judge Street Journal.

She caught her balance and got jostled toward a Community Affairs officer, who then shoved Chevalier with so much force that she flew through the air and onto the street, letting out a shriek and covering her face as she tried not to get trampled.

With the help of people standing around her, she got back on her feet and stepped toward the officers, stunned at what had just happened.

“What the fuck is wrong with all of you?” she shouted.

Protestors yelled, and a few splashed water toward the line of cops. Chevalier stepped forward, gesturing with her hands to de-escalate the situation, as police backed away. She turned back to the protestors and put a hand up, trying to calm them.

Eventually, things settled, and Chevalier retreated to catch her breath, as people realized who was on the ground standing alongside them.

She had just finished speaking at a press conference near the scene of the shooting and then marched with protestors across the small bridge onto the island of Manhattan, to demonstrate outside the hospital where several ICE vehicles had arrived.

Right before 9:00, a black unmarked car with red and blue flashing lights descended the hill and headed toward the street. Protestors sprinted to get in front of it.

One man smashed his fist into the windshield and shattered it, as others tried to stay in front of the car.

Cops grabbed the protestors, shoved them out of the way, and began clearing a path for the driver to escape. Whistles rang out, and the driver hit the gas.

“As the car proceeded down the road, it started accelerating into people,” Chevalier told the Journal immediately after witnessing it. “On multiple occasions, police were shoving folks out of the way. And then it sped past, swerved, and almost hit multiple people.”

With the car gone, officers began telling one another “98!” — police code for resuming normal patrol. Some cops retreated to stand in front of the ramp leading up to the hospital, while others walked toward an NYPD truck to unload police barricades.

Cops began to set them up on both sides of the four-way intersection to protect a path in and out of the entrance.

Protestors realized what the officers were doing and tried to disrupt the construction, pulling the barricades away from cops.

Within minutes, the woman who will represent this district in Congress come January was on the ground.

She stayed at the protest for about 40 more minutes afterward, continuing to observe interactions between the protestors and police. As 10:00 approached, Chevalier and her team walked across the bridge to where Mayor Zohran Mamdani was due to speak at a press conference with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

Mamdani was in the middle of negotiating with President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin about releasing 28-year-old Oscar Belgal from ICE custody as he recovered from his wound. The administration refused.

Across the bridge, a caravan of ICE cars descended the hill onto the street, as protestors tried to stop them.

“Hold the line, hold the line, hold the line,” an NYPD officer shouted, as they blocked protestors from getting in front of the cars, allowing the ICE agents to depart from the hospital. With a clear path, the drivers accelerated to a speed that would have severely injured anyone who got in their way.

“Well, it’s over,” one protestor said, suspecting that Belgal was in one of the cars.

Dejected by what they had just witnessed, the protestors marched across the bridge to confront the man they felt had betrayed them.

The mayor’s team stood a block away from the podium. Mamdani hugged Chevalier, dapped up Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and turned to approach the press. Commissioner Tisch and Attorney General Letitia James joined the mayor at the podium.

As Mamdani got closer, a bullhorn erupted in what felt like an ambush. Protesters emerged from the bridge around the corner. They descended toward the press conference, and police stepped up to meet them and establish a perimeter.

“No ICE, no KKK, no fascist USA!” they chanted.

Mamdani was stone-faced as he began to speak.

“ICE agents surrounded the man’s vehicle before opening fire. They wore construction vests and masks that concealed their faces. There was no reasonable way to identify them as ICE agents,” the mayor said.

“Mamdani is complicit! Mamdani is complicit!” they shouted at him.

“A five-year-old child was in the back seat,” he said, clearly outraged at what had unfolded in his city.

The protestors kept chanting.

“Mamdani is complicit! Mamdani is complicit!” the protestors shouted as he spoke.

“Just moments ago, ICE put the man in an unmarked vehicle and whisked him away,” Mamdani said. “Let me say this plainly: What happened today was an outrage.”

The protestors knew that information. They witnessed it firsthand, and there was a glaring detail the mayor omitted: The NYPD made way for ICE agents to whisk Belgal away. And they saw this as a glaring contradiction.

Tisch spoke next and began reading preliminary details about the incident, as protestors chanted, “NYPD, KKK, IOF: They’re all the same.”

One of the federal agents on the scene after the shooting had called 911, she said, asking for the police and the fire department.

“NYPD, we know you. You’ve got blood on your hands, too!” the activists shouted.

The mayor took a couple of questions, turned around, and walked back to his motorcade.

Elected officials love to talk about how tough New Yorkers are.

“He messed with the wrong fucking city,” Chevalier said last night, at a separate press conference, to a round of cheers. This morning, she called on Tisch to resign.

Some New Yorkers are so tough that they’re willing to get in front of ICE agents’ cars to stop them from executing their project of mass deportation.

For months now, immigration activists have complained that the NYPD has been stopping people who try to prevent ICE from leaving with immigrants in their custody. The skirmishes have been small, and the dispersals often too quick for reporters to get to the scene in time.

Last night was different, and it laid bare a reality with which the city’s socialist mayor will grapple in the coming days: Many of his voters are so determined to protect immigrants that they’re willing to dispense with some of the city’s traffic laws to hamper ICE’s efforts. They want to put their bodies on the line to prevent immigrants from leaving New York, and they don’t want the NYPD to stop them.

In the time since last night’s protest, organizers have already identified what they believe to be staging areas for ICE and other federal law enforcement in the city. Videos of Chevalier have spread across the internet and will soon play on every national broadcast outlet in the country.

All eyes are on New York City, and the next protest begins in an hour.