ICE agent fatally shoots Colombian man in Maine

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian man during an immigration operation in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, prompting protests and new scrutiny of the agency’s use of deadly force.

ICE said agents were watching an address at about 7 a.m. for a person with a final order of removal when they tried to stop a vehicle leaving the location. “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” the agency said, adding that the driver was struck.

The agency did not provide details on why the officer feared for public safety. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said initial statements indicate “the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot.” Frey said the officer, from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, has been placed on leave pending an investigation.

The man’s name has not been released pending formal identification and notification of his family. Colombia’s embassy confirmed he was a Colombian national and said it had “requested information and clarification” from the Department of Homeland Security “regarding the circumstances surrounding this lamentable death and will continue to follow the case closely as the investigation progresses.” Al Jazeera reported that the embassy was also providing consular assistance to his family.

The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said the man was authorized to work in the United States. “He was a member of our community, a neighbor, and a human being whose life was cut tragically short,” the organization said. The coalition and the advocacy group Presente! identified him as 26 years old, according to Al Jazeera.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins said the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is taking over the investigation. Al Jazeera reported that the FBI is also investigating alongside the inspector general’s office, while Maine’s attorney general is conducting a separate inquiry. Collins has called for a “full and impartial investigation of what happened.”

Maine Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin initially told him the man killed was the target of an arrest warrant in an immigration operation. Hours later, King’s office told the BBC, Mullin called back to say the man was not the target. King said Mullin told him the man was shot after he tried to drive his car at officers. “He was in a vehicle — pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was ‘weaponised’ the vehicle and was shot by an ICE agent,” King said. King also said the officers involved were not wearing body cameras and that investigators would examine whether deadly force was necessary.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene. One Biddeford resident, Lucas Scott, told the Biddeford Gazette he saw lights flashing from an unmarked white SUV, at least two officers in green ICE vests and agents shouting as they surrounded a white sedan before he heard at least four gunshots. Mary Hayes told The Associated Press the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter. “I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” she said. “I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again.”

Dozens of demonstrators gathered in Biddeford after the shooting, and others protested outside Collins’ office over her vote to fund ICE. Al Jazeera reported that several hundred demonstrators gathered Monday evening with anti-ICE signs and calls to abolish the agency.

The shooting came one week after an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. Federal officials later acknowledged the Mexican man was not the intended target of that enforcement operation, but said he had tried to run over an ICE agent. Al Jazeera reported that more than 60 people have died in ICE shootings or while in detention since Donald Trump returned to power, including 52 deaths in ICE custody during the first 500 days of his second administration, according to Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights.