US immigration officer fatally shoots man in Maine

A US immigration officer fatally shot a man in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, in the second such fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in less than a week. Rights groups identified the man as a 26-year-old Colombian. US media identified him as Joan Sebastian Guerrero and reported that he worked as a delivery driver and lived in Biddeford with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said officers tried to stop a vehicle at about 7:00 am after conducting surveillance at the last known address of a person with a deportation order. The spokesperson said the vehicle attempted to flee, an officer fired because of fears for public safety, the driver was hit, and emergency services were called. The driver later died from his injuries.

Senator Angus King of Maine first told reporters he understood, after speaking with Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, that the victim was the subject of an ICE arrest warrant over his immigration status. A spokesperson for King later said the senator was told in a second conversation with Mullin that the victim was not the intended target. King told CNN that the person killed was not the person agents were seeking. He called for a full, transparent and open investigation and said the agents involved apparently were not wearing body cameras.

ICE said the officer would be placed on leave under protocol after police-involved shootings. The FBI said it was also investigating. The Colombian embassy said it had asked the Department of Homeland Security for clarification about the death of a Colombian national.

A witness, Daniel Boucher, told AFP he heard several shots and then saw ICE agents pull a person from a white car with blood on his head and face. Boucher said he heard the victim say words to the effect of, I tried to stop. He also said that when he confronted one of the agents at the scene, the man tried to run him over.

The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and Presente Maine jointly identified the victim without naming him and said he was authorized to work in the United States. Crystal Cron, executive director of Presente Maine, said the death should not be reduced to an enforcement statistic. Maine Governor Janet Mills said she was horrified and wrote on X that the victim not being the intended target underscored what she called reckless and haphazard immigration enforcement in Maine and across the country.

Images from the scene showed a police cordon on a residential street and a forensics unit near a red tent. People placed candles and flowers nearby. Protesters rallied in the area with signs opposing ICE and gathered at the office of Maine Senator Susan Collins, a Republican. Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain said the community and the victim's loved ones deserved clear answers.

The shooting followed the fatal shooting of a Mexican man by an ICE agent during an attempted vehicle stop in Texas last week. ICE, which is enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, has faced nationwide backlash over aggressive tactics and over the shooting deaths of two US citizens this year in Minneapolis.