Biddeford ICE shooting: What we know about 26-year-old Colombian victim, Senator Angus King provides update
BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — A motorist killed by ICE police in a crash maine Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Mullin told him Monday’s shooting was not the target of a warrant executed by police.
It was 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 Confirmed The man killed was a 26-year-old Colombian.
King, the independent senator from Maine, said Mullin told him the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon to attack police officers in Biddeford, a coastal city about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland, before the officer opened fire.
“He was in the vehicle, pulled out of the vehicle, the term the secretary used was ‘weaponized’ the vehicle, and then shot by ICE agents,” King said.
King initially said Mullin told him the man was targeted for deportation. A spokesman for the senator said Mullin later called King to inform him of the new information he had received.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office is working with FBI and other agencies said initial accounts indicate the driver attempted to flee in the direction of the agents. The agent who killed him has been suspended, the office said.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Messages seeking comment were left with ICE and the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Daniel Boucher said that after hearing a “pop, pop, pop” sound, he looked out his third-floor window and saw a small car “turning 90 degrees to the curb” with an SUV behind it. The driver was injured and the car began driving down the street until the SUV hit it again, Boucher said.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Butcher said, choking. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I was trying to stop’ – clearly heard him say that.”
Boucher said he saw an ICE officer bring a medical bag to where the man lay before ambulances and fire trucks arrived. Boucher said the agent who shot the man approached him at one point.
“I was emotional and I just let him do it and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember exactly what he said.”
Advocates say the man has been allowed to work in the U.S.
Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and Presente! — said the man killed was authorized to work in the United States
His family contacted the Immigrant Rights Alliance after the shooting, but Mufalo Chitam, the group’s executive director, said they were not ready to speak publicly about the shooting.
Mary Hayes, who lives near where the shooting occurred, said the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter.
“I saw a wife on her knees looking at her husband’s body lying on the ground,” Hayes told The Associated Press, holding a piece of cardboard that read “No Ice Stops.” “I saw a little girl with a little pink backpack crying because she would never see her father again.”
The Colombian embassy said it was in contact with U.S. authorities and “efforts are underway to formally confirm the identity and nationality of the individual.”
Security video, but no body camera footage
Cory Poulin, whose family owns a laundromat near the scene, told The Associated Press that the store’s security cameras captured footage of the man’s car entering the intersection after the shooting. Other images from the scene showed cars driving in circles and bullet holes in their windshields.
He said Maine State Police asked him not to release the video publicly.
King said the agents involved in the shooting did not have body cameras.
“The question is: What did he do with his car?” the king said. “Were the officers threatened? Did the threat rise to a level that warranted the use of deadly force?
Anti-ICE protesters gathered near the scene
Within hours of the shooting, dozens of demonstrators critical of ICE and Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown gathered in Biddeford.
Amy Goodman, from nearby Wells, arrived with a sign that read “Stop Killing Us” and pointed it at police working the scene.
“Sadly, we’ve been seeing this a lot lately and I’m angry about it,” said Goodman, who was wearing a shirt that read “ICE Better Be Crushed.”
Police blocked access to the shooting scene, which is mostly surrounded by multi-family homes, churches and businesses. Several protesters stood nearby, some holding signs denouncing ICE’s presence in the community and state.
“We are saddened, we are angry, and we will not let his death be seen as routine or inevitable,” Cheatham said. “How much more harm must our community endure before those with the power to act acknowledge that this has gone too far?”
Trump recently stepped up immigration crackdown
On July 7, an ICE officer shot and killed Salgado Araujo, 52, of Houston as federal agents pursued him in an unmarked vehicle as he led construction workers to a construction site.
The shootings come as the Trump administration is pushing for an agenda of mass deportations. In the five days to the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.
The figures show that while the government is no longer cracking down on individual cities, arrests are surging. The government’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned after the killings of Alex Pretty and Renee Goode in Minnesota last winter.
“More than anything, I want to know, ‘Why are you in Maine?'” Rep. Cherry Pingree, D-Maine, said in a video on social media.
Maine ICE arrests hundreds since Trump’s return
Earlier this year, ICE had a large presence in Maine, sparking numerous protests. Immigration officials later said in late January that they had halted “enhanced operations” in Maine after hundreds of arrests.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said at the time that some of those arrested in Maine were “convicted of horrific crimes,” including aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children.
While some had felony convictions, others had unresolved immigration proceedings or had been arrested but never convicted, court records show.
According to ICE arrest data provided and analyzed by The Associated Press to the UC Berkeley Deportation Data Project, ICE arrested 546 people in Maine from the beginning of Trump’s second term through March 11, 2026, the most recent year for which data are available.
About 45% of those arrested have criminal backgrounds. The data shows that during the 416 days before Trump took office, about 69% of those arrested had a criminal background.
