The man killed in a shooting by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday was not the target of an arrest warrant, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Sen. Angus King on Monday, according to the senator’s office.
A 26-year-old Colombian man who was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number was killed in the morning shooting, according to two organizations, Presente! and the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition.
Authorities have not publicly identified the man. The Colombian Embassy in Washington said it is working to help identify the victim and confirm nationality.
King, I-Maine, said earlier that Mullin told him ICE targeted the man because he had a final deportation order.
Mullin told King that “the victim of today’s federal law enforcement shooting was not the target of the warrant,” King’s spokesperson, Matthew Felling, said in a statement. “Sen. King continues to emphasize the need for a full and transparent investigation.”
A spokesperson for ICE said in a statement that the driver of a vehicle was killed after an attempted traffic stop. The statement came about 12 hours after the shooting, to the point Maine elected officials had relayed to the public what DHS had shared with them.
ICE “was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal” around 7 a.m. Monday, the ICE spokesperson said.
“An illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle. ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” the ICE spokesperson said.
The statement did not say whether the person was the subject of the surveillance. ICE did not mention any other person as being in the vehicle.
What neighbors saw
Daniel Boucher, 71, who lives near where the shooting happened, said he had a direct view of the shooting and heard the man say, “I tried to stop.”
Boucher said that after he heard shots about 7:30 a.m., he saw a large white vehicle ram a smaller one before they collided again.
Boucher said he saw an officer open the door of one of the vehicles and pull out a man whose head was bleeding profusely.
“Nobody should have to see what I saw,” Boucher said.
Neighbor Nelson Elias said he recognized the man from his job at a restaurant. The slain man worked for DoorDash and had picked up from the restaurant where Elias worked.
Elias said the two men realized they were neighbors and had chatted in the past.
Elias said he heard six shots Monday. “I saw his wife and the daughter, you know, crying on the street,” he said.
Another neighbor, Cecelia Humiston, said the scene was right outside her house. She first heard of its location after she woke up and saw news of a shooting on Facebook and recognized her home.
A little girl was in her pajamas along with another woman, and authorities were trying to keep the girl inside crime scene tape that had been set up, Humiston said.
“The girl she was, like, completely beside herself, just crying,” she said.
The investigation
King told reporters at a news conference Monday that Mullin said that body cameras have been widely distributed but that they are not everywhere, “and apparently not in Biddeford, Maine.” King added that he was told the cameras were coming, possibly in 45 days, “but that doesn’t help us in this case.”
Gov. Janet Mills wrote in a statement that she had been briefed on the shooting and that state police were cooperating with local and federal officials.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General is investigating the shooting, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, also said Mullin told her the inspector general has taken over the investigation, along with the FBI.
The ICE spokesperson said, “The DHS OIG has been notified and like all discharge of firearms this will be investigated.”
“This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information is available,” the spokesperson said.
The state attorney general’s office said it is also investigating the shooting.
Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain said in a statement that he was “shaken” when he was told about the shooting death.
“A person has died and their loved ones and the people of our community deserve clear answers about what happened,” LaFountain stated.
Dozens of protesters gathered in a park in Biddeford, carrying signs that read “ICE just killed my neighbor” and “I prefer crushed ICE.”
Fighting back tears, protester Katie Barrow told NBC Boston she was heartbroken that someone died because of immigration enforcement. “It’s just disgusting,” she said. “A badge and a gun are not a license to kill.”
ICE enforcement in the state previously included an operation launched in January, which DHS dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day.” Mills, the governor, criticized the operation and the administration for its lack of transparency on arrests, warrants and other information.
The Maine shooting comes less than a week after ICE officers in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was driving a van they were chasing. DHS has said the man “weaponized” the van by trying to run over ICE officers, but some Texas officials have questioned that narrative.
ICE agents were not wearing body cameras in the Houston shooting, and Salgado Araujo, a native of Mexico who had lived in the U.S. over 35 years, was not ICE’s target, officials said.
DHS also said U.S. citizen Renee Good had tried to run over an ICE officer in defending their fatal confrontation with her in Minneapolis in January, an account local officials disputed. Less than three weeks later, another officer fatally shot Alex Pretti, also a U.S. citizen.
ICE arrests have sharply increased since late last month.
NBC News has learned that the agency arrested more than 1,300 people Saturday and more than 1,100 people Sunday, according to a source familiar with the data and operations.
That follows a new call from DHS leadership and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to arrest 2,000 people per day. Although those numbers do not approach 2,000, they are significantly higher than previous weekend numbers, which averaged 600 a day just last month.
Top Democrats react: ‘Enough’
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Monday that the slain man in Maine was killed “in cold blood.” He also referred to the killing of Salgado Araujo, the man fatally shot in Texas.
“This pattern of violent immigration enforcement actions shocks the conscience and must immediately come to an end,” Jeffries said in a statement.
“ICE agents must be compelled to behave like every other law enforcement officer in America and criminally prosecuted when they violate the law. Enough,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., demanded answers.
“We need a complete, independent, and transparent investigation immediately,” Schumer wrote on X.
Senate Democrats blocked new funding for DHS in February, leading to a monthslong shutdown of the department over demands for reforms to ICE after the killings of Good and Pretti. Funding for ICE and the Border Patrol was eventually restored through a reconciliation process that required only 51 votes.
