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.