DHS: ICE officer shot man in Maine after ‘fearing for public safety’

State Watch DHS: ICE officer shot man in Maine after ‘fearing for public safety’ Comments: by Max Rego - 07/13/26 11:07 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/13/26 11:07 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday the federal immigration officer who fatally shot a man in Maine did so out of fear for “public safety.”

The department wrote on X that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were conducting “targeted surveillance on the last known address” of an undocumented migrant in Biddeford, Maine, at roughly 7 a.m. EST on Monday, when an individual departed the residence in a vehicle.

“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” DHS added.

“The driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. He passed away from his injuries.”

The man who was shot was a 26-year-old Colombian citizen who was authorized to work in the U.S. and had a Social Security number, according to the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine.

“A 26-year-old man came to Maine to live and work, and now his family is mourning his death following an incident involving ICE. This is devastating, enraging, and unacceptable. His loved ones deserve answers, and the public deserves a full and transparent account of what happened,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement.

Maine Sens. Susan Collins (R) and Angus King (I) on Monday called for an impartial investigation into the shooting.

“The shooting in Biddeford requires a full and impartial investigation of what happened,” Collins wrote on X. “It is my understanding that the Biddeford police have secured the site and that the FBI is investigating.”

Collins later said that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told her the Boston office of the department’s inspector general “has taken over” the probe into the shooting “in cooperation with” the FBI.

King told The Associated Press that Mullin informed him the ICE officers, who did not have body cameras, were serving an arrest warrant in Biddeford — but not for the man who was shot.

“What were the facts? Did this… young man actually try to run over an ICE agent or was he in danger of running over other people in the street, and was there a reasonable expectation of bodily harm or deadly force to justify this shooting?” the senator told host John King on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” regarding what an investigation into the incident should yield.

The fatal shooting in Maine is the second such incident involving an ICE officer in the last week. In Texas, ICE officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo as he was heading to work last Tuesday morning.

While the agency said Salgado Araujo was trying to weaponize his car against its officers, other men in the vehicle and a lawyer for Salgado Araujo’s family contradicted that account.