News
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot a motorist on Monday in Biddeford, a coastal town in Maine about 24 kilometres from Portland. It is the second time in a week that ICE has resorted to lethal force, and the ninth death recorded since President Donald Trump launched his crackdown on irregular immigration.
Migrant rights groups identified the dead man as a 26-year-old Colombian; the Colombian embassy confirmed it is in contact with the US authorities and is providing consular support to the family.
Conflicting accounts of what happened
The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that its officers had been monitoring the home of a person with a final deportation order and that, when they tried to stop a vehicle leaving that address, the driver attempted to flee; fearing for public safety, one of the officers opened fire.
However, Maine senator Angus King gave a different account after speaking to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin: according to his version, the officer fired because the man had allegedly tried to use his car as a weapon against the agents in Biddeford, who were not wearing body cameras.
Mullin also told King that officers had gone to the scene to execute an arrest warrant that did not correspond to the person who was ultimately shot, correcting an earlier statement. Asked about these conflicting versions, King was cautious in an interview with the US network CNN.
“Did this young man really try to run down an ICE officer, or was he at risk of running over other people in the street? Was there a reasonable expectation of bodily harm or lethal force that would justify this shooting?”.
Republican senator Susan Collins said Mullin had informed her that the case is being jointly investigated by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI. Maine’s attorney general, who is also investigating, has said that initial statements indicate the driver was trying to flee towards the officer, who has already been suspended from duty.
“I tried to stop”
Daniel Boucher, who lives in the area, said he heard several shots and saw a small car turned 90 degrees towards the pavement with an SUV behind it; the wounded man’s vehicle kept moving down the street until the other car rammed it. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop’,” Boucher recounted, his voice breaking.
Boucher also said that after he challenged the officer who fired, the latter replied that the man had tried to run him over. Security-camera footage from a nearby building, obtained by the Associated Press, shows a white vehicle approaching a junction at moderate speed and circling several times before a police pickup blocks its path and two officers pull a limp body from the driver’s seat; the footage does not capture the precise moment when the shots were fired.
