ICE agent shoots and kills man in Maine who was ordered to leave U.S., senator says
A man who was ordered to leave the U.S. was shot and killed in his car in Maine on Monday by an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Maine Sen. Angus King said, marking the second time in a week that ICE officers have used deadly force in the U.S.
An immigrant rights group said the man killed in the shooting was Colombian.
King was briefed on the shooting in Biddeford, Maine, by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the senator said during a news conference in Portland before catching a flight to Washington. He said the deceased man had been given an order to leave the U.S. and was the target of an arrest warrant based on his immigration status.
"He was in a vehicle, pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was 'weaponized' the vehicle," King told reporters. "He was shot by an ICE agent. What I said to the secretary was we want a full, transparent and open investigation of this matter."
The agents involved in the shooting weren't wearing body cameras, King said, which he said concerned him. The FBI will lead the investigation into the shooting, King said.
The state attorney general's office, which is also investigating the shooting, said in a statement that the target of the operation "attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of" an officer with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations directorate, according to initial statements collected by investigators. The officer who opened fire will be placed on leave, according to the attorney general's office.
Immigrant rights group IDs man killed in Maine shooting
The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition identified the person who was shot as a 26-year-old Colombian man who was authorized to work in the U.S. and had been issued a Social Security number.
A photo from the Portland Press Herald shows a car behind police tape with four bullet holes in the windshield on the driver's side.
The Press Herald also posted a video that it reported was from the scene of the shooting. The video, which was recorded from a nearby vehicle, shows a white car slowly driving in a circle in an intersection near two vehicles with flashing lights. Two people approach the car while it's moving, and one person appears to grab onto the driver's side door handle before the video ends.
A separate video posted by the Bangor Daily News shows two people wearing police vests pulling the driver from the white car after it stopped. The driver's body drops to the street.
"The question is, what did he do with his vehicle?" King told reporters. "Were officers threatened? Were the threats rising to the level that justified deadly force? 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."
Project Relief Maine, an immigrant advocacy group, said in a statement on social media that the person who was killed was one of their community members.
"We are in contact with the family and are committed to supporting them during this unimaginable time," the group said. "This was a young person whose life was cut short, and our community must come together to stand with their loved ones and ensure they are not alone. They must get justice."
Maine Gov. Janet Mills said she was briefed on the shooting. "I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening," she said in a statement.
The Maine State Police was at the scene working with the state attorney general's office, the state Office of Chief Medical Examiner and federal officials, Mills said. State House Speaker Ryan Fecteau had said on Facebook that the state Department of Public Safety was also at the scene gathering details.
The Biddeford Police Department said in a statement that it responded to an incident involving ICE personnel at the intersection of Pool and Hill streets and was providing security at the scene. The department directed inquiries about the incident to ICE.
Maine shooting comes after deadly incident in Houston
The shooting comes after an ICE officer shot and killed a Mexican man in his work van last week in Houston.
In that incident, security camera footage obtained by CBS affiliate KHOU-TV shows ICE officers in unmarked vehicles followed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo after he picked up co-workers for a construction job.
The Department of Homeland Security said officers thought one of the men resembled someone they were looking for and that Araujo attempted to run over an officer who fired in self-defense. An attorney for two of the men in the van said the ICE officer fired into the vehicle through a window on the passenger side.
"Lorenzo had already parked the van. The ICE agent reaches in, fires a shot directly in front of Victor's face, strikes Lorenzo on the side," attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra said in an Instagram video.
The ICE officers involved in the shooting weren't wearing body cameras and didn't have dashboard cameras in their vehicles. The FBI is investigating the shooting.
