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Monday’s shooting during an immigration enforcement operation in Bedford was the second time in a week that ICE used deadly force.
Blood is seen on the sidewalk near the scene of a shooting involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Monday, July 13, 2026, in Bedford, Maine. Robert F. BUKATI/AP
BEDFORD, Maine (AP) — Immigrant rights groups are demanding answers and planning more protests Tuesday over the fatal shooting of a Maine driver by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Monday’s shooting during an immigration enforcement operation in the city of Bedford was the second time in a week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement used deadly force and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his anti-immigration campaign.
The US Department of Homeland Security said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer “fearing public safety” shot and killed the driver while agents were monitoring the home of someone they believed was in the country illegally and had a final order of removal from the country.
The department said in a post on the
The statement came hours after Maine Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen told him that the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his car as a weapon against ICE agents.
King said Mullen also told him officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the person who was shot.
The officers involved did not have cameras, raising many questions about the circumstances of the shooting in the coastal community south of Portland, Maine’s largest city.
It is not yet clear how close the officer was to the vehicle when the officer opened fire, whether the officers asked the driver to stop or how the public was in danger.
DHS did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarification on what prompted the shooting.
The Maine Attorney General’s Office, which is also investigating, said preliminary data indicates the driver of the vehicle was attempting to flee in the direction of the agent. The officer who killed him has been placed on leave, the office said.
Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed as a 26-year-old Colombian national. The Colombian embassy said it was in contact with US authorities regarding the man’s death and was providing assistance to his family.
Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullen told her that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General was investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Video from a security camera at a nearby business, obtained by The Associated Press, shows a white vehicle approaching an intersection at a modest speed before making several slow circles. A law enforcement SUV blocked her path and two officers opened the driver’s door and pulled out a limp body.
It is not clear from the video when the shooting took place.
Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing a “pop, pop, pop” sound. He saw the SUV moving down the street until the SUV collided with it.
“His face was covered in blood. His head was covered in blood,” Boucher said, choking up. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
At some point, Boucher said, he was approached by the agent who shot the man.
“I got emotional and I let him do it, and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
There are two advocacy groups – the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and Presente! – He said that the man who was killed was authorized to work in the United States
Mary Hayes, who lives near the scene, said the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter.
“I saw a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s body on the ground,” Hayes told the AP, holding a sign that read, “No ICE, Stop ICE.”
Just last week in Texas, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, of Houston, after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles chased him as he escorted his construction crew to a work site.
The two shooting incidents come as the Trump administration seeks to implement its mass deportation agenda. Over the course of five days at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.
The numbers show that although the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, arrests are on the rise. The department’s law enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretty and Renee Judd in Minnesota.
Willingham reported from Boston and Brock reported from New Orleans.