A federal immigration officer shot and killed a man in Biddeford, Maine on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed, just days after a man was killed by an immigration officer during a traffic stop in Texas.
In the statement, DHS claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal”.
DHS claimed “an illegal alien” left the residence agents were surveilling in a vehicle, which law enforcement “attempted” to stop. It said: “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
The person killed by the agent was not the target of an immigration enforcement operation, Maine senator Angus King said on Monday afternoon on CNN, reversing an earlier statement at a press conference.
Local immigrants’ rights groups said the victim was a 26-year-old Colombian man.
The shooting is the latest of several killings involving federal immigration officials as the Trump administration continues with its aggressive push to arrest and deport immigrants nationwide.
DHS has repeatedly claimed victims of ICE shootings “weaponized” their vehicles, with video evidence later casting doubt on the department’s claims.
King said in a press conference the ICE officials were not wearing body cameras. The FBI would lead an investigation into the shooting, he added.
Maine’s attorney general is also “actively investigating” the fatal shooting, a spokesperson said in a statement.
The shooting occurred at approximately 7.20am, according to local outlets. One person told the Portland Press Herald he heard what sounded like fireworks outside his home in Biddeford, a city of more than 22,000 about 15 miles south of Portland and 90 miles north of Boston.
After rushing to the window, he saw an SUV trying to ram a small white car in the intersection.
Moments later, agents in vests stopped the car and pulled out the driver, who was “bleeding profusely from the head”.
“He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop,’” the eyewitness told the Herald. The witness told the Herald he saw the person’s legs stop moving as he lay on the ground.
Another man described as an eyewitness told the Biddeford Gazette he saw “at least two officers” in green ICE vests gathered around a white sedan stopped at an intersection. He said the officials were yelling “very loudly” and that he heard at least four gunshots.
Social media images showed various scenes purportedly from the shooting. One photo showed numerous bullet holes in the windshield of the vehicle. In one video, released by the Press Herald, a small sedan is seen slowly driving in a circle, while men chase the vehicle and try to open the car door. It is unclear if the video was recorded after the shooting.
In another video, officials are seen attempting to remove a limp body from a car and handcuffing him.
And in another, federal officials and local police are seen gathered around an unmoving person on the ground, providing what seems to be medical attention.
Although the identity of the victim has not yet been officially confirmed, there are conflicting reports about his status. Immigrant rights groups said he was authorized to work in the US and had been issued a social security number.
However, citing sources, a NewsNation journalist reported that he had a final order for deportation.
King, the senator, said Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, claimed the man had been given a final removal order.
Crowds were seen gathering in protest a relatively short time after the shooting, according to the Press Herald.
The killing marks the 11th person fatally shot by federal immigration officials since Trump took office in his second term.
It’s also the fifth person of those 11 to be killed by ICE while driving a vehicle.
Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state who is running for the Democratic nomination for a US Senate seat, referred to that number in a post on X on Monday.
“It’s time to get ICE off our streets,” Bellows said.
Other candidates echoed similar calls. Former Maine state senator Troy Jackson, who is also running for the Democratic nomination after party primary winner Graham Platner suspended his campaign, said on X that he had “been alerted to the fatal ICE shooting in Biddeford” on Monday morning.
“Our team is monitoring this situation very closely and will [provide] updates as we learn more,” Jackson wrote. “My heart is with Biddeford – and with all Mainers.”
Jackson added in a follow-up post, in part: “Our immigrant communities are under attack by ICE.” He also said the agency “must be abolished”.
According to the Press Herald, Biddeford’s mayor, Liam Fountain, in January called the concept of immigration enforcement in the city “deeply unsettling”. He said Biddeford had been “shaped over time by immigrants and others who came here seeking safety, work and the opportunity to build a life”.
The case in Biddeford was six days after an ICE agent in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while officers were trying to stop his vehicle.
Witnesses who were in the van with Salgado have denied that he ever “weaponized” his vehicle during the encounter despite ICE’s claims that the official who killed Salgado fired in justifiable self-defense.
A DHS spokesperson has said Salgado was not the target of an ICE arrest operation in progress at the time of his killing. But ICE agents attempted to stop his van because there was an individual inside who merely “resembled the target”, a statement from the spokesperson said.
Details of the exact circumstances surrounding Salgado’s shooting death are still unclear. The DHS inspector general has launched an investigation into the shooting.
The Harris county district attorney’s office is also investigating the shooting. It is unclear whether federal officials have been cooperative with district attorney investigators.
Salgado’s family called for an independent investigation into the shooting, pointing to past statements by the DHS that have later been disproven or questioned.
Salgado’s killing prompted protests that called to mind those which came after the shooting deaths of US citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of immigration officials in Minneapolis in separate cases in January.
Local officials in Minnesota said the FBI refused to share evidence with them on the state’s investigation into the shootings of Good, Pretti and a third person who survived.
But a report on Monday from the Minnesota Star Tribune said federal officials had since quietly shared evidence of the Good and Pretti killings with state investigators.
Cate Brown and Reuters contributed reporting
