One person dead after ICE-involved shooting in Maine
(CNN) — A person was killed Monday in an ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford, Maine, according to the state’s speaker of the house — just days after a federal agent fatally shot a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston, sparking mass protests and demands for transparency and accountability.
“A person was killed. ICE was involved. State Police and the Department of Public Safety are now on scene to gather details and would expect the FBI to investigate as well,” Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau said in a statement on Facebook. “These are the details that I have at this time. I will provide further updates, as they are relayed to me.”
CNN has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Biddeford police told CNN there was a “police incident” in the area, about 18 miles south of Portland, and said there is no threat to the public at this time, but declined to provide additional details.
The circumstances surrounding the shooting weren’t immediately clear, but eyewitness accounts have started to shed light on the incident.
Witness Lucas Scott told the Portland Press Herald in a video interview that he saw flashing blue lights as he approached the scene Monday and saw ICE officers yelling.
“The ICE agent was yelling and drew his weapon, and he kept yelling and yelling and warning the person driving, which is when the car was put into drive and was trying to hit the ICE officer, and he fired,” Scott said.
He had already passed by the scene when he heard the popping of about four gunshots, Scott said. Scott saw the car rolling down the street in the aftermath, he added.
Meanwhile, another local resident, Daniel Boucher, told the Portland Press Herald that he was getting ready for work when he heard the gunshots. From his window, Boucher said he saw an SUV trying to ram a small white car at the intersection before agents in vests pulled a man from the car.
“He was bleeding profusely from the head,” Boucher said later Monday morning. “He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop.’” Boucher continued watching, he said. He believes he watched the man die.
Maine Democratic US Rep. Chellie Pingree was heading to Biddeford Monday morning to learn more about the shooting, which has deeply disturbed the community, she said in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”
Earlier, Pingree called for an investigation into the incident, adding a question directed at ICE officers: “Why are you in Maine?”
The incident comes less than a week after a man on his way to work in Houston was shot and killed by an ICE agent. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed during a traffic stop in what ICE initially described as a targeted enforcement operation, though a source later said Salgado Araujo was not the target of the operation.
The shooting has reignited calls for accountability among ICE agents, which reached a fever pitch earlier this year after 37-year-old mother Renee Good and 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti were killed by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration’s operation in Minneapolis.
The administration dubbed a similar surge in immigration enforcement across Maine in January “Operation Catch of the Day.” The ACLU and other advocates filed a lawsuit against federal immigration agents for “abducting a lawful immigrant” during the surge.
More than 200 people were “picked up” during that operation, Pingree told CNN Monday.
“But we have continued to see people who are having knocks come at their door, people who are afraid to go to work, people are afraid to go to the grocery store. Even though they’re legally here, they’re worried that their status won’t be believed and they will be picked up and detained,” the congresswoman said.
Some community groups and advocates that rallied against the surge earlier this year have already started to organize in response to Monday’s shooting. The group “Maine Resists” has planned an emergency community rally in the city at noon. The racial justice and immigrant rights group Project Relief said it is in touch with the victim’s family.
The-CNN-Wire
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