An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian man with legal work authorisation in Biddeford, Maine on Monday, the ninth death recorded since President Donald Trump launched his mass deportation campaign, as conflicting accounts and missing body camera footage deepened a national controversy over ICE’s use of lethal force.
The Department of Homeland Security said its officers attempted to stop a vehicle leaving a property under surveillance and that the driver used his car as a weapon. But witness Daniel Boucher said he clearly heard the dying man say “I tried to stop,” and security footage obtained by the Associated Press shows the white vehicle circling a junction at moderate speed before a police pickup blocked it. Officers were not wearing body cameras.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin later told Maine senator Angus King that the original arrest warrant was for a different person entirely, not the man who was shot. The officer has been suspended pending investigation by DHS Inspector General and the FBI. Maine’s attorney general is also investigating.
The victim’s wife watched her husband die in the street, while their young daughter was also present.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Biddeford on Monday night demanding the abolition of ICE.
The shooting came one week after ICE agents in unmarked vehicles killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston.
