The Colombian man who was fatally shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Biddeford, Maine, was not the target of the warrant that officers were attempting to serve, according to Sen. Angus King (I-ME).
The shooting comes less than a week after another fatal ICE officer-involved shooting in Houston in which the victim was not the target of the warrant. In that case, officers killed Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who had lived in the United States for more than 35 years.
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King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the man was shot after using his vehicle as a weapon against officers. The senator noted, however, that the agents involved in Monday’s shooting, like those involved in the Houston shooting, weren’t wearing body cameras.
“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.
The Department of Homeland Security’s statement on the shooting notably did not use the word “weaponized,” only saying the driver “attempted to flee the scene,” prompting an officer, “fearing for public safety,” to shoot the driver. DHS said the man left the house of an illegal immigrant with a final order of removal.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office, which is investigating the shooting alongside the FBI and other agencies, said preliminary evidence indicates the man was attempting to flee in the direction of an officer when the shooting occurred. King was originally told in his meeting with Mullin that the man shot was out for arrest on a final deportation order. The ICE officer involved has been placed on leave.
Immigrant rights groups identified the man as a 26-year-old Colombian national who “came to Maine to live and work.”
The killing sparked demonstrations across Maine on Monday. Roughly two dozen protesters entered Sen. Susan Collins‘s (R-ME) office chanting “vote her out” before police escorted them from the building. Several hundred additional demonstrators marched through Biddeford before gathering in a local park.
ANTI-ICE PROTESTERS STORM SUSAN COLLINS’S OFFICE IN MAINE AFTER OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING
Collins called for a “full and impartial investigation” into the shooting, noting that the FBI is participating in the investigation. Protesters also criticized Collins for backing roughly $70 billion in ICE funding without accompanying reforms to the agency’s training and operational practices.
The shooting is the ninth fatal use of force by ICE officers since President Donald Trump began his immigration enforcement agenda.
