A fatal shooting involving ICE officers took place in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, local government officials said.
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Gov. Janet Mills wrote in a statement that she had “been briefed on the fatal shooting in Biddeford this morning involving Federal law enforcement.” She added that state police were cooperative with local and federal officials on the incident.
The Biddeford Police Department said it responded to calls about an occurrence at Pool and Hill streets and that the “incident involved U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.”
Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau and former state Sen. Troy Jackson both referred to an ICE-involved shooting in which someone was killed.
“This morning a shooting occurred in Biddeford. A person was killed. ICE was involved,” Fecteau wrote. “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 organization Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and Presente! identified the victim as a 26-year-old Colombian man who was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number.
Ruben Torres, the advocacy and policy manager at Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, told NBC News they are waiting to inform his family of his death before releasing any additional details publicly.
The Department of Homeland Security, ICE, local police and the state’s Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Daniel Boucher, 71, who lives on a corner of a street where the shooting happened, told NBC News he had a direct view. After hearing shots at about 7:30 a.m., he saw one large white vehicle ram a smaller and then a second ramming of the vehicles.
Boucher said he saw an officer open the door of one of the vehicles and pull a man, whose head was bleeding profusely, out of a vehicle. He said he heard the man say, “I tried to stop.”
“Nobody should have to see what I saw,” Boucher said.
Fecteau said his team was monitoring the situation “very closely” and promised updates. Jackson posted a similar statement.
“My heart is with Biddeford — and with all Mainers,” Jackson said about the shooting in the community about 15 miles south of Portland, Maine.
Biddeford Saco for Racial Justice, a local social justice group, called for a noon protest against ICE at Mechanics Park.
The alleged shooting comes less than a week after ICE officers fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston after chasing a van he was driving. DHS has said the man had “weaponized” the van by trying to run over ICE officers but some Texas officials have questioned that narrative.
DHS had also said Renee Good had tried to run over an ICE officer in defending their fatal confrontation in Minneapolis in January, an account local officials disputed. Less than three weeks later, another officer fatally shot Alex Pretti.
ICE arrests sharply increased late last month and this month.
