US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have fatally shot a Colombian man in the state of Maine.
The man was shot on Monday morning at around 7.20am EDT in what authorities described as a routine removal operation.
The man had reportedly “attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer”, but ICE has not shared details on why the officer feared for safety.
Dozens of protesters gathered in Biddeford afterwards. The city is around 18 miles south of Portland.
The person who was killed during the altercation is believed to be a 26-year-old man from Colombia who was authorised to work in the US, according to the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coaliton and Presente! Maine. He has not been identified further.
The inspector general's office for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, is taking over the investigation, according to Senator Susan Collins, a Republican representing Maine.
Fellow Maine Senator Angus King, a political independent, said he was initially told by DHS chief Markwayne Mullin that the person who was shot dead was a target of an arrest warrant in an immigration operation.
But hours later, King said Mullin called him to say the man was actually not the target of a warrant, his office told the BBC.
The Colombian Embassy said it has "requested information and clarification" from DHS "regarding the circumstances surrounding this lamentable death and will continue to follow the case closely as the investigation progresses".
The incident places renewed scrutiny on DHS and ICE.
On July 7, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old builder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo as he was driving to a construction site in Houston.
It was confirmed later that the Mexican man was not the intended target of the enforcement operation, but federal officials said he had tried to run over an ICE agent.
