'Alarming and Frightening': ICE Officers Involved in Fatal Shooting in Maine

A man died in a shooting involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, according to the state’s Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

“This morning a shooting occurred in Biddeford. A person was killed. ICE was involved,” he wrote in a Facebook post early that morning. “State Police and the Department of Public Safety are now on scene to gather details and would expect the FBI to investigate as well.”

The individual was identified by local advocacy groups as a 26-year-old Colombian man who “came to Maine to live and work,” according to a joint statement by the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine. The statement, released Monday afternoon, said that the man was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security Number. TIME has not independently verified this information.

Maine Sen. Angus King said in a press conference that he’d spoken with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Markwayne Mullin on Monday. King said Mullin told him the man had been “ordered to leave the country” and had "weaponized the vehicle." The Independent senator also said that the officers involved were “apparently” not wearing any body cameras at the time.

Biddeford’s local paper, the Biddeford Gazette, reported that an eyewitness saw flashing lights on an unmarked Ford Explorer at an intersection just before 7:20 a.m. The witness told the Gazette that he saw at least two officers surround a white sedan, yelling very loudly, before he heard at least four gunshots. 

Another witness spoke to the Portland Press Herald, saying he had heard gunshots and rushed to the window in time to see officers pulling a man from his vehicle. 

“He was bleeding profusely from the head,” Daniel Boucher told the news outlet. “He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop.'”

Boucher said that he believed he watched the man die on the street.

The Associated Press reported that Monday’s shooting is the ninth ICE-related fatality since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

“I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening,” Maine Gov. Janet Mills wrote in a statement released just before noon. “The Maine State Police are at the scene supporting and working cooperatively with the Attorney General’s Office, Maine’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner, and Federal officials to determine the facts of what occurred this morning.”

The Biddeford Police Department (BPD) has yet to make an official statement. Police Chief JoAnne Fisk said that further information would come from the FBI and Maine Attorney General's Office, and the BPD did not reply to TIME’s request for comment.

Local media reported that authorities closed a road following the shooting, and that the crime scene was monitored by Maine State Police, the Biddeford Police Crime Scene Unit, and the FBI.

Project Relief Maine, a racial justice and immigration advocacy group operating in the state, said on social media that one of their “community members was killed during an encounter with ICE.”

“We are in contact with the family and are committed to supporting them during this unimaginable time,” Project Relief said in the statement. “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 Rep. Chellie Pingree said in a video posted to social media that she was “deeply disturbed” by the reports.

“Were they pursuing someone with a criminal record? Was this a random traffic stop? How did this possibly happen and why was this person shot? Were the officers wearing body cameras?” she wrote. “But more than anything else, I want to know 'why are you in Maine?'”

Pingree, a Democrat, has been outspoken as ICE has heavily increased its presence and activity in Maine in recent weeks. MIRC reported about a 35% uptick in hotline calls about ICE sightings and detentions in May and June, as compared to April.

The incident comes less than a week after an ICE officer fatally shot a man, 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, while conducting a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that Araujo rammed into an ICE vehicle while attempting to evade an arrest and that the officer fired his weapon in self-defense. There were three men in the car with Araujo at the time who contradict that scenario, according to their lawyer. Araujo’s family and community members have demanded an investigation into his death.

ICE’s use of force against civilians continues to come under heavy scrutiny following the killings of two people during ICE’s immigration crackdown earlier this year in Minneapolis. Alex Pretti and Renee Good’s deaths sparked outrage across the country and led to mass protests in Minneapolis. 

Mullin, who replaced Kristi Noem at the helm of DHS in March, had pledged to run operations more discreetly than his predecessor had. But ICE has not managed to stay out of the headlines, and The New York Times reported a surge in arrests, with federal immigration officials arresting 10,000 people in a five-day period earlier this month. TIME has reached out to DHS for comment.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who ran in the Democratic primary for governor and is currently pursuing Graham Platner's former seat in the Senate, also commented on the shooting on Monday. "It's time to get ICE off our streets," she wrote on X.

"Our communities are hurting," MIRC Executive Director Mufalo Chitam said in the organization's joint press release with Presente! “We are grieving, we are furious, and we will not allow his death to be treated as routine or inevitable. How much more harm must our communities endure before those with the power to act acknowledge that this has gone too far?”