ICE confirms officers conducting ‘targeted surveillance’ at the time of deadly shooting in Maine

Executive Producer

BIDDEFORD, Maine —

A federal immigration officer fatally shot a motorist in Maine on Monday, the second time in a week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have used deadly force and at least the ninth time since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.

Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed as a 26-year-old native of Colombia.

Related video above: Mayor of Biddeford, Maine, speaks about deadly ICE shooting

Just before noon, Maine Gov. Janet Mills confirmed a person was dead as a result of the shooting.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a statement Monday night that around 7 a.m., ICE was “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien” for what is described as a final order of removal. They said the target of their operation left the home in a vehicle and ICE officers tried to stop the vehicle as the driver kept going. They said the officer feared for public safety when he shot at the vehicle, hitting and killing the driver. The man died from his injuries. The statement did not say how many people were in the vehicle at the time.

The statement went on to say the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General is now investigating.

U.S. Sen. Angus King previously said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against ICE agents in Biddeford, a coastal city roughly 15 miles southwest of Portland.

“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.

King, a Maine independent, said Mullin also told him the officers were in Biddeford to serve an arrest warrant but that it was for not for the person who was shot.

King said Mullin told him that earlier information that the man was the target of an enforcement action was incorrect. He said Mullin “got new information, and when he got it he called me to tell me.”

Sen. Susan Collins office told sister station WMTW on Monday evening that Secretary Markwayne Mullin had told her that the Boston office of the DHS Inspector General had taken over the investigation, in cooperation with the FBI.

The Maine attorney general’s office, which is also investigating, said initial statements suggest the motorist was trying to flee in the direction of the agent. The office said the agent who killed him has been placed on leave.

The Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition identified the victim as a 26-year-old man from Colombia. Mufalo Chitam, the group’s executive director, told CNN that the man was on his way to work. The group said the man was authorized to work in the US and was issued a social security number.

Federal officials have not confirmed any of those details about the victim.

The killing is at least the ninth death since the start of the Trump administration’s mass deportations campaign.

The Colombian Embassy shared a statement on Monday afternoon.

“The Embassy of Colombia in the United States, through its Consular Section, is in contact with the relevant U.S. authorities and with representatives of community organisations [sic] assisting in the case. Consular officials are working to formally confirm the individual’s identity and nationality and to determine the appropriate procedures in accordance with applicable legal and consular protocols.”

Sen. King said he did not believe any of the agents involved were wearing body cameras at the time.

“Different facts may come out, but apparently there are no cameras involved. Body cameras were not on the agents, and, so we have no video, evidence of what occurred in this case,” he said.

Biddeford Police Chief JoAnn Fisk told Hearst sister station WMTW that this was not her department’s investigation and that her department was only investigating. She said all information will come from the FBI and Office of the Attorney General.

Video below: Neighbor describes what she saw as ICE shot and killed a person in Biddeford, Maine

This comes just days after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston, sparking mass protests and demands for transparency and accountability.

ICE said in a statement that the man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, attempted to evade arrest when agents tried to conduct a traffic stop.

Men who were in Salgado Araujo’s work van, however, told attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra and Rep. Sylvia Garcia the version of events ICE presented is false. Two of the men told Garcia the agents’ vehicles bumped into them and then swayed into the van, forcing them to stop. The agents never identified themselves to the men, they told Garcia.

In at least five previous shootings, initial descriptions by the immigration officials were later contradicted by video evidence, according to The Associated Press. Those included the fatal Minneapolis shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, where bystander video quickly raised questions about how they were initially described.

The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.