Man killed during ICE encounter in Maine

A man was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent early Monday morning in a coastal city in Maine, according to officials.

Ryan Fecteau, speaker of the Maine House, posted on his Facebook account on Monday morning that one person was killed in a shooting incident involving ICE in Biddeford.

"State Police and the Department of Public Safety are now on scene to gather details and would expect the FBI to investigate as well," Fecteau said.

Fecteau later posted that the victim is a 26-year-old from Colombia in the United States legally and had been issued a social security number. Federal officials didn't release the identity of the deceased.

Local residents said that they heard at least four gunshots. Maine's Attorney General Aaron Frey said on Monday in a statement that a deportation officer was "conducting an enforcement operation related to a final order of removal when the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot".

"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," US Senator Susan Collins from Maine said on X.

Social media video showed a man holding onto the window of a white sedan on the driver's side while the car was circling on the spot. Other videos showed ICE agents pulling a body out of the car from the driver's side, and agents surrounding the body on the ground.

Maine Governor Janet Mills said she had been briefed on the situation. "I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening," she said in a statement.

"My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the person who died as they face an unimaginable loss. They deserve compassion, dignity and, in time, a full understanding of the circumstances that led to this tragedy," Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain said.

LaFountain said he was "shaken to receive the news" and called for "a full, thorough and transparent investigation into this fatal incident".

At a noon news conference at the Portland International Jetport, US Senator Angus King from Maine said he was told by Homeland Security that the person who was killed was a man in his 20s who had been given an order to leave the country. He said DHS told him that the person "weaponized the vehicle".

The shooting occurred as ICE has ramped up enforcement across the country in recent weeks, increasingly targeting people who are not in law enforcement custody.

In another incident about a week ago, an ICE agent fatally shot a man in Houston who was not the target of their operation.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52 and a father of three, was driving his van to work building houses in North Houston on July 7 when ICE agents in unmarked black vehicles stopped his vehicle.

An ICE statement said that Araujo "refused to follow multiple verbal commands" and "weaponized his vehicle" to try to run over the agent who fired the fatal shot.

However, the three other men in the van, who are now in ICE custody, said in their written statements relayed by their lawyer that Salgado Araujo never attempted to ram ICE with his van.

Since the ICE agents didn't wear body cams, there's little visual evidence to show what happened.

Salgado Araujo, a Mexican citizen, had lived in Houston for 35 years with no criminal record. His son, 29-year-old Ronaldo Salgado, said his father was in the process of obtaining legal residency.

"He's always been aware of what to do in the event that he got pulled over," Ronaldo Salgado told The Texas Tribune. "He knew he wasn't supposed to sign anything, he knew that he wasn't supposed to give them a hard time."

US Representative Al Green called for an investigation of the shooting.