A U.S. immigration officer shot and killed a person in Maine on Monday morning, the second fatal shooting involving federal agents in less than a week.

The incident occurred in Biddeford, a small city about 18 miles southwest of Portland. The Department of Homeland Security said it was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known residence of an individual who had received a deportation order, according to a statement posted on X late Monday.

A suspected unauthorized person departed the residence in a vehicle, which ICE agents attempted to stop. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and an officer fired his weapon “fearing for public safety,” according to DHS. An official for the agency had earlier said the officer fired after the person tried to run them over, without providing additional details or evidence supporting that account.

Officials didn’t specify if the person who was killed was the same individual who had received a deportation order. Independent Maine Senator Angus King told reporters at the U.S. Capitol that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him that the person killed was not the intended target of the operation in Biddeford.

The office of Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, a former Democratic state representative, said it’s investigating the shooting with assistance from state, local and federal authorities.

The officer has been placed on leave, as is standard protocol, the attorney general’s office said in a statement. It called for any protests to remain peaceful.

“Our community is shaken by this incident. We are heartbroken that someone lost their life,” said Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, whose district includes the city. “We deserve answers about why lethal force was used and why an operation was being carried out in our streets.”

Authorities have not publicly identified the person who was killed. The attorney general’s office said it will release the person’s name after positive identification is confirmed and family members are notified. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine, another immigration advocacy group, identified the person as a 26-year-old Colombian man and said federal immigration officers had been carrying out additional enforcement activity in the area.

Residents in the area told the Portland Press Herald that they heard gunshots and saw officers trying to stop a car driven by the man who had been shot. One said the driver got out of the vehicle bleeding from the head, the newspaper reported.

A group of protesters gathered at Mechanics Park, near the scene of the incident, with about 40 people remaining as of late Monday afternoon and passing drivers offering supportive honks. A crowd was also outside Republican Senator Susan Collins’ local office, chanting “vote her out.” Collins is seeking her sixth term in November’s midterm elections. She had taken credit for bringing an end to an enforcement surge in Maine in January that ICE had called “Operation Catch of the Day.” Still, Maine Democrats have sought to link her to President Donald Trump, who lost the state in the 2024 election, and have highlighted her votes in support of his agenda.

Collins voted for a Republican-led $70 billion package to fund immigration enforcement through the end of the Trump administration that passed last month.

She called for “a full and impartial investigation of what happened” in a statement posted to X. She later said the Boston office of the DHS Inspector General had taken over the investigation in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing a conversation with Mullin.

Susan Gorman, a 59-year-old Biddeford resident, participated in the protest outside of Collins’ office, saying the senator had given immigration enforcement agencies “a blank check.”

“She voted for this, she thinks this is peachy,” Gorman said. “Just another reason why she is out of touch with her constituency.”

Gladys Thompson, a 66-year-old resident of Lisbon, Maine and a Navy veteran, said she grabbed snacks and water and headed to Biddeford immediately after she heard the news of the shooting.

“I’m very unhappy with the state of the nation,” Thompson said. “I want ICE gone. We do not need masked men roaming our streets, kidnapping our neighbors or family.”

There were also a handful of counter-protestors at Mechanics Park on Monday afternoon.

At the site of the shooting, people had left a handful of flower bouquets and candles as a tribute to the victim. A small hand-drawn sign said, “Immigrants make Biddeford great.” The next line: “This is on Susan!”

Immigration officials’ descriptions of several use-of-force encounters by federal agents over the past year have later been called into question by mobile phone and surveillance camera footage or other evidence. The latest shooting adds to growing scrutiny of the tactics used by immigration officers as the Trump administration intensifies enforcement across the country.

King also said the officers were not wearing body cameras. He called for federal officials to coordinate with state and local counterparts, saying that “given what’s happened over the past year, we can’t just stand back and say, ‘oh, it’s a federal investigation. Everything’s on the up and up.’”

“Were officers threatened?” and “were the threats rising to the level that justified deadly force? That’s what this investigation is all about,” King said, according to a transcript of a media briefing posted on his website. “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, and that our state and local officials aren’t frozen out.”

Before this incident, at least eight people had died in encounters with federal immigration agents since the administration’s crackdown began, according to the Associated Press. They include Renee Good, who was shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis in January, and Alex Pretti, who was killed by Customs and Border Protection officers in the city later that month. Video of Good’s shooting raised disputes about the administration’s claim that she tried to run over an officer.

Last week, federal immigration agents killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction worker, during a traffic stop in Houston, prompting protests. Federal officials have said Salgado Araujo attempted to use his car as a weapon against the agents but witnesses disputed that account, according to the New York Times.

ICE enforcement activity has picked up in Maine in recent weeks, according to Ruben Torres, advocacy and policy manager at the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.

The shooting comes as Maine Democrats seek to find a replacement candidate to challenge Collins for her Senate seat. Oysterman Graham Platner officially withdrew from the race last week after sexual assault allegations, kicking off a two-week process that will culminate in a nominating convention in late July. On Monday, the Senate hopefuls reacted to the incident, signaling it will become a focal point in the race.

“It’s time to get ICE off our streets,” Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who lost the Democratic primary for Governor last month but is now seeking the Senate seat, said in a post on X. Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president who is also campaigning for the seat, reiterated his stance that ICE should be abolished and said that even before the shooting, the state’s immigrant communities had been “under attack” by the agency.

“There are a lot of folks who are scrambling for answers right now. What I think everyone shares is that this should never happen,” Nirav Shah, former director of the state’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention and another Senate candidate, said at a press conference on Monday. He called ICE “a broken, unaccountable, rogue agency.”

Gorman, who also participated in the protest at Mechanics Park, said she thought the shooting would likely lead Mainers to unite around whichever candidate Democrats select to represent the party on the ballot this November.

“It’s going to activate people to understand that it’s really important that we unify. We have to defeat her,” she said of Collins.

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(With assistance from Max Zimmerman, Alicia A. Caldwell, Steven T. Dennis and Yash Roy.)

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