‘Heard the popping’: Man shot dead by US immigration agents in Maine

Washington: Snap protests have erupted in the US state of Maine after immigration enforcement agents were involved in another fatal shooting, with a 26-year-old Colombian man killed, according to immigration advocates.

It is the second such fatality in seven days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a pursuit in Houston last week.

The office of Maine’s attorney-general said it was investigating the use of deadly force by an ICE enforcement and removal operations officer in Biddeford. It said early statements indicated the killing occurred when the man attempted to flee in a vehicle, driving toward the officer.

But there was confusion over the victim’s identity. Maine senator Angus King initially said the man was the target of the ICE officers’ warrant, but later said that updated advice indicated he was not.

The incident occurred early on Monday morning (US time). Authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security, had not provided any public comment within eight hours.

A witness, Lucas Scott, told the Portland Press Herald that he was driving through the intersection at the time of the fatal shooting and that the driver was “trying to hit the ICE officer”.

“The ICE agent was yelling and drew his weapon,” Scott told the newspaper. “He kept yelling and yelling and warning the person driving, which is when the car was put into drive and was trying to hit the ICE officer.

“He fired I would say probably four shots at him ... I just heard the popping, but I did see him draw his gun at the windshield.”

King, an independent senator for Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, said he spoke with DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin, who had promised him a full and transparent investigation.

“It’s a tragedy whenever there’s a loss of life. We don’t know the circumstances at this point,” King said at a news conference.

He also said the agents involved were not wearing body cameras, meaning it was uncertain whether the investigation would give a clear picture of what happened.

“We’ve been told that body cameras would be widely distributed,” King said. “I am concerned. They should have been having body cameras two years ago when all this started.”

The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine, both immigration advocacy groups, said the man killed was a 26-year-old from Colombia who “was authorised to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security Number”.

“We are grieving, we are furious, and we will not allow his death to be treated as routine or inevitable,” said MIRC executive director Mufalo Chitam.

“How much more harm must our communities endure before those with the power to act acknowledge that this has gone too far?”

King initially said that in his conversation with Mullin, the DHS secretary indicated the person shot was being arrested and removed from the country because he was not there legally.

But he later said that updated information from Mullin indicated the man was not, in fact, the target of the warrant the officers were executing.

The consecutive deaths of people fleeing arrest by ICE come six months after the US was rocked by the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both American citizens who were protesting ICE raids in Minneapolis during an enforcement blitz.

Those killings were a turning point in public attitudes, and prompted US President Donald Trump to send his border tsar, Tom Homan, to Minnesota and scale back operations in the state.

But ICE has continued to execute the administration’s mass deportation agenda. The Associated Press reported that the agency arrested 10,000 people over five days at the end of June – a substantial increase in enforcement.

In Maine, protesters gathered at Mechanics Park in Biddeford on Monday, and outside the office of Republican senator Susan Collins, carrying signs that said, “F--- ICE”, and chanting: “Vote her out.”

Collins, who has broken with Trump on several issues and is up for re-election in November, said on X: “The shooting in Biddeford requires a full and impartial investigation of what happened. It is my understanding that the Biddeford police have secured the site and that the FBI is investigating.”

Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who is now running to be the state’s next senator, said at least 11 people had been shot dead by ICE or Border Patrol since Trump’s crackdown began. That figure is also cited by immigration advocates.

“It’s time to get ICE off our streets,” Bellows said.