Many questions remain after an ICE officer’s fatal shooting of a Maine driver

BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Immigrant rights groups are demanding answers and planning more protests Tuesday over an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s fatal shooting of a Maine driver.

The shooting Monday during an immigration enforcement operation in the city of Biddeford marked the second time in a week that ICE used deadly force and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer “fearing for public safety” shot and killed the driver while agents were watching the home of someone they believed was in the country illegally and had a final order of removal from the country.

The department said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop the vehicle driven by someone coming from the home, the vehicle attempted to flee and the officer fired his weapon.

That statement came hours after Maine Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him that the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents.

King said Mullin also told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the person who was shot.

The officers involved didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions surrounding the circumstances of the shooting in the coastal community south of Portland, Maine’s biggest city.

It’s not clear yet how close the officer was to the vehicle when the officer opened fire, whether officers told the driver to stop or how the public may have been in danger.

DHS did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on what led to the shooting.

The Maine attorney general’s office, which is also investigating, said initial statements suggest the motorist was trying to flee in the direction of the agent. The office said the officer who killed him has been placed on leave.

Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed as a 26-year-old native of Colombia. The Colombian Embassy said it was in contact with U.S. authorities about the man’s death and providing assistance to his family.

Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.

Video from a security camera at a nearby business, obtained by The Associated Press, shows a white vehicle approaching an intersection at a modest speed before making several slow circles. A law enforcement SUV blocked its path and two officers open the driver’s door and dragged out a limp body.

It isn’t clear from the video when the shots were fired.

Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing a “pop, pop, pop” sound. He saw the SUV moving down the street until the SUV hit it.

“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said, getting choked up. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”

At one point, Boucher said, the agent who shot the man walked close to him.

“I was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”

Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the U.S.

Mary Hayes, who lives close to the scene, said 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,” Hayes told the AP as she held a sign saying “No ICE Stop ICE.”

Just last week in Texas, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, of Houston, after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site.

The two shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda. Over five days at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.

The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, arrests are surging. The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

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Willingham reported from Boston and Brook reported from New Orleans.