An ICE agent has fatally shot a Colombian national during an immigration enforcement operation in the US state of Maine, a week after the agency used deadly force against another migrant in a Texas traffic stop.
In the latest incident, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said agents were watching an address for a person with a final order of removal in Biddeford at around 07:00 EDT (11:00 GMT) on Monday.
When ICE tried to stop someone driving from that address, “the vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon”, ICE said, adding “the driver of the vehicle was struck”.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered in Biddeford afterwards.
ICE did not share details on why the officer feared for safety.
Maine’s top prosecutor said the incident involved an officer from ICE’s Enforcement Removal Operations department, and the agent has been placed on leave pending an investigation.
Initial statements indicate “the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot”, said Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey, a Democrat.
The name of the deceased man is not being released until he is formally identified and his family are notified, the statement added.
The inspector general’s office for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, is taking over the investigation, according to Senator Susan Collins, a Republican representing Maine.
Fellow Maine Senator Angus King, a political independent, said he was initially told by DHS chief Markwayne Mullin that the person who was shot dead was a target of an arrest warrant in an immigration operation.
But hours later, King said Mullin called him to say the man was actually not the target of a warrant, his office told the BBC.
The person who was killed was a Colombian national, the Embassy of Colombia confirmed.
The Embassy said it has “requested information and clarification” from DHS “regarding the circumstances surrounding this lamentable death and will continue to follow the case closely as the investigation progresses”.
According to the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, the person who was killed was a 26-year old Colombian authorised to work in the US.
“He was a member of our community, a neighbor, and a human being whose life was cut tragically short,” the organisation said in a statement, which did not name the man.
Protests broke out in Biddeford, 18 miles (30km) south of Portland, following the shooting. Others gathered outside the entrance of Collins’ office, to protest against her vote to fund ICE.
The senator has called for a “full and impartial investigation of what happened”.
One witness told the Biddeford Gazette that at around 07:20 local time, he saw lights flashing from an unmarked white SUV, and “at least two officers wearing green ICE vests”.
Lucas Scott, a Biddeford resident, said the agents were shouting as they surrounded a white sedan. He then heard at least four gunshots.
Another witness told the Associated Press (AP) news agency that the man who was killed lived nearby with his wife and daughter.
“I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” Mary Hayes said.
“I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again.”
Senator King said that Mullin, the head of DHS, had told him the man was shot after attempting to drive his car at police.
“He was in a vehicle – pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was ‘weaponised’ the vehicle and was shot by an ICE agent,” King said.
He added that officers involved did not wear body cameras, and that officials would be investigating whether deadly force was necessary.
“That’s what this investigation is all about and I certainly intend to stay after it to do everything I can to be sure the investigation is as transparent and thorough as possible,” King said, according to the AP.
The incident draws renewed scrutiny on DHS and ICE.
On 7 July, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old builder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo as he was driving to a construction site in Houston.
Federal officials later acknowledged that the Mexican man was not the intended target of the enforcement operation, but they said he had tried to run over an ICE agent.
Mullin took over leadership of DHS in March, replacing Kristi Noem after she was fired by US President Donald Trump.
Noem’s tenure saw fatal shootings by immigration officers of two protesters, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both American citizens.
The deaths of Pretti and Good came after the Trump administration announced immigration enforcement surges in Minnesota and other states.
Federal officials launched a similar operation in Maine, in January, dubbed Operation Catch of the Day.
Civil rights organisations filed a lawsuit against alleging aggressive tactics by federal agents during enforcement surges.
