BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) 鈥� An agent fatally shot a motorist in Maine on Monday, the second time in a week that ICE has used deadly force and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.
Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed in Biddeford as a 26-year-old native of Colombia. The Colombian Embassy said it was in contact with U.S. authorities about the Colombian national’s death and 鈥渋s providing the necessary consular assistance to his family.鈥�
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, said in a post on X that agents were surveilling an address for a person with a final order of removal from the country. When ICE tried to stop a vehicle driven by someone coming from that address, the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,鈥� the department said.
Prior to the brief ICE statement on the incident, Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents in Biddeford, a coastal city roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland. The agents involved didn鈥檛 have body cameras, he said.
When asked about the contrasting statements, King told CNN that that’s what the investigation is all about.
鈥淒id this young man actually try to run over an ICE agent or was he in danger of running over other people in the street?” he said. 鈥淲as there a reasonable expectation of bodily harm or deadly force to justify this shooting?鈥�
DHS did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on what led to the shooting.
King, an independent, said Mullin also told him the officers were in Biddeford to serve an arrest warrant but that it was not for the person who was shot. King said Mullin told him that earlier information that the man was the target of an enforcement action was incorrect.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said Mullin told her the Homeland Security Department鈥檚 Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Messages seeking comment were left for the inspector general鈥檚 office and the Maine Department of Public Safety.
The Maine attorney general鈥檚 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 agent who killed him has been placed on leave.
Witness says he heard driver say, 鈥業 tried to stop鈥�
Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing a 鈥減op, pop, pop鈥� sound and saw a small car 鈥渢urned 90 degrees to the curb鈥� with an SUV behind it. The driver was wounded and the car started moving down the street until the SUV hit it, Boucher said.
鈥淗is face was bloody. His head was bloody,鈥� Boucher said, getting choked up. 鈥淚 clearly heard the victim say, 鈥業 tried to stop.'”
Boucher said he saw an ICE officer bring a medical bag to where the man was lying before an ambulance and fire truck arrived. At one point, Boucher said, the agent who shot the man walked close to him.
鈥淚 was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, 鈥楬e tried to run me over,鈥� or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don鈥檛 remember his exact words.鈥�
Video from a security camera at a nearby business, obtained by the AP, 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鈥檚 door and dragged out a limp body.
It was not clear from the video at what point shots were fired.
The man was authorized to work in the US, advocates say
Two advocacy groups 鈥� the Maine Immigrants鈥� Rights Coalition and Presente! 鈥� said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the U.S.
After the shooting, his family contacted the Immigrants鈥� Rights Coalition, but they weren’t ready to speak publicly about the shooting, said the group’s executive director, Mufalo Chitam.
Mary Hayes, who lives close to where the shooting happened, said the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter.
鈥淚 watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband鈥檚 dead body on the ground,鈥� Hayes told the AP as she held a piece of cardboard with 鈥淣o ICE Stop ICE鈥� written on it. 鈥淚 watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she鈥檚 never going to see her father again.鈥�
Sadie Dilboy said the man killed in the shooting regularly came to her laundromat and would bring his daughter, who he’d give quarters to buy candy from the vending machine.
鈥淗e was such a good person,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e was always cleaning up.鈥�
Anti-ICE protesters gather near the scene
Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Biddeford on Monday night to wave anti-ICE signs and call for the agency to be abolished.
鈥淲e will always be a city of immigrants,鈥� said Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat from Biddeford.
A handful of pro-ICE and pro-Trump protesters demonstrated across the street.
Some demonstrators had gathered in the city within hours of the shooting. Amy Goodman arrived with a sign that said 鈥淪top Killing Us鈥� and directed it toward police working at the scene.
鈥淪adly, it鈥檚 something we鈥檙e seeing a whole lot more often lately, and I鈥檓 mad about it,鈥� she said.
A recent uptick in Trump’s immigration crackdown
On July 7, an ICE officer 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 shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass . During the five-day period at the end of June, ICE arrested .
The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer , the arrests are surging. The administration鈥檚 enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
Hundreds of Maine ICE arrests since Trump鈥檚 return
ICE had a in Maine earlier this year, which prompted several protests. Immigration officials later said in late January that they had ceased 鈥渆nhanced operations鈥� in Maine after hundreds of arrests.
A Homeland Security spokesperson said at the time that some Maine arrests were of people 鈥渃onvicted of horrific crimes” including aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Court records show that , others had unresolved immigration proceedings or had been arrested but never convicted of a crime.
ICE arrested 546 people in Maine between the start of Trump鈥檚 second term and March 11, 2026, the most recent data available, according to ICE arrest data provided to the University of California, Berkeley Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the AP.
About 45% of arrested people had criminal backgrounds. During the equivalent 416-day period before Trump took office, roughly 69% of those arrested had criminal backgrounds, the data shows.
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Willingham reported from Boston and Brook reported from New Orleans. Associated Press reporters Michael R. Sisak in New York, Aaron Kessler in Washington, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
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