ICE Agent Kills Colombian Man in Biddeford, Maine, in Second Deadly Shooting by the Agency in a Week

An ICE officer fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian man Monday morning in Biddeford, Maine, the second deadly shooting by the agency in a week following the killing of Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston days earlier.

The shooting happened around 7 a.m. at the intersection of Pool and Hill streets. ICE said agents were conducting surveillance on "the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal" when a man left the residence in a vehicle. Agents tried to stop the car. ICE says the driver tried to flee and an officer, "fearing for public safety," opened fire. The driver was struck and later died.

The Maine Attorney General's Office, which is investigating alongside the FBI, said initial statements indicate the man was trying to flee "in the direction of the officer" when he was shot. The officer who fired has been placed on leave, standard protocol for officer-involved shootings, according to the AG's office.

The advocacy groups Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine identified the man as a 26-year-old Colombian national who they say was authorized to work in the U.S. and had a Social Security number. Community members said he was a young father living nearby with his wife and daughter.

Mary Hayes, a neighbor, told the Associated Press she watched the man's wife collapse next to his body. "I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she's never going to see her father again," Hayes said, according to PBS/AP reporting.

Cory Poulin, whose family runs a nearby laundromat, told the AP his security cameras captured the man's car rolling into the intersection after shots were fired, spinning in circles with bullet holes visible in the windshield. "I don't believe he was alive when the car started rolling," Poulin said. He said state police asked him not to release the footage publicly.

Was he the actual target?

Sen. Angus King (I-ME) initially told reporters that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed him the man was the intended target of the enforcement operation. King's office later walked that back, issuing a statement saying Noem told him the man was in fact not the target of the warrant.

King relayed that Noem described the man as having "weaponized" his vehicle against the pursuing officers. "He was in a vehicle, pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was 'weaponized' the vehicle and was shot by an ICE agent," King said, according to Newsradio WGAN and PBS.

King also confirmed the agents involved had no body-worn cameras, raising the central evidentiary problem in the case. There is no video from the officer's perspective, and the state police reportedly asked a bystander not to release his own footage. "The question is, what did he do with his vehicle," King said. "Were officers threatened? Were the threats rising to the level that justified deadly force? That's what this investigation is all about."

ICE's own statement did not claim the man tried to hit officers with his car, only that he "attempted to flee." Maine's Attorney General said he fled "in the direction of" the officer. Those are two different levels of threat, and neither account, as released, definitively establishes the man aimed his car at anyone. Without body cameras or released bystander video, the public is being asked to trust secondhand characterizations relayed by a senator from a Cabinet secretary, which is not the same as an evidentiary record.

Political reaction and protests

Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) posted news of the shooting to Facebook shortly after 8 a.m., saying state police and the Department of Public Safety were on scene and the FBI was expected to investigate.

Gov. Janet Mills said she'd been briefed and that state police were working with the Attorney General's office, the medical examiner, and federal officials "to determine the facts of what occurred."

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) posted a video asking "why are you in Maine" in reference to ICE's presence, and said she'd be "asking a lot of questions."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who has generally supported ICE enforcement, said the shooting "requires a full and impartial investigation" and confirmed Biddeford police had secured the site with the FBI investigating. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside her office Monday chanting "Vote her out" and "Whose streets? Our streets!" according to the Daily Wire.

Local organizations called for a gathering at noon at Mechanics Park, according to the Maine Beacon.

What's next

The FBI is leading the investigation alongside the Maine Attorney General's office, DHS's Office of Inspector General, and Maine State Police. The officer who fired remains on leave. No charges have been filed and no findings have been released.

The unresolved core question, as King framed it, is whether the threat posed by the vehicle actually rose to the level justifying deadly force. That determination will depend on evidence not yet public, including any surveillance footage state police have asked witnesses to withhold. The identity of the man killed has still not been officially released by authorities pending notification of family, though advocacy groups have already named his age and nationality.