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Federal officials said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were conducting surveillance at a Biddeford address linked to someone with a final order of removal when a vehicle left the property shortly after 7 a.m. on July 13. When officers moved to stop the vehicle, it attempted to flee the scene and an agent discharged his weapon out of concern for public safety, the Department of Homeland Security stated in an announcement. The driver was struck and later died from his injuries. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, a Democrat, reported that initial statements collected by investigators showed the subject had attempted to flee in a vehicle toward the officer, prompting the fatal shot from an Enforcement and Removal Operations agent who has been placed on administrative leave.
Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin first described the deceased as the target of an arrest warrant in the immigration operation but corrected that information hours later to confirm the man was not the intended subject. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition identified the victim as a 26-year-old Colombian national who possessed work authorization and a Social Security number while living locally with his wife and young daughter. The coalition said in a statement that he was a community member on his way to work when the encounter unfolded. “He was a member of our community, a neighbor, and a human being whose life was cut tragically short,” the organization stated, extending condolences to his family.
Witnesses who spoke to local outlets described an unmarked white SUV with flashing lights and officers wearing green ICE vests surrounding a white sedan near the scene around 7:20 a.m. Biddeford resident Lucas Scott told the Biddeford Gazette that agents were shouting as they approached before he heard at least four gunshots. Mary Hayes recounted to the Associated Press seeing the man’s wife fall to her knees beside his body as their daughter cried nearby wearing a pink backpack. The deceased man’s name has not been released pending formal identification and family notification, according to the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General is leading the investigation into the use of deadly force, Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, reported. King highlighted that the agents involved were not wearing body cameras, which he said would complicate efforts to establish a clear record of events. “That’s what this investigation is all about and I certainly intend to stay after it to do everything I can to be sure the investigation is as transparent and thorough as possible,” King said, according to the Associated Press.
The Maine shooting occurred one week after a federal officer in Houston, Texas, fatally shot 52-year-old Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7 during a traffic stop in which officials later acknowledged he was not the primary target. The Associated Press reported that the incident in Biddeford marked at least the ninth death connected to immigration enforcement since the Trump administration expanded its deportation operations. An Associated Press review determined that in at least five previous ICE-involved shootings, initial official accounts were later contradicted by video or other evidence.
Protests drew hundreds of people to downtown Biddeford and to the entrance of Collins’ office, where demonstrators called for an end to the operations and criticized her votes to fund the agency. Civil rights groups have filed lawsuits over what they described as aggressive tactics during similar surges, including one in Maine dubbed Operation Catch of the Day that began in January. The events have intensified scrutiny of the Department of Homeland Security under Mullin, who took over the role in March following the dismissal of his predecessor.
