Shooting occurs days after man killed by immigration agent during traffic stop in Texas

A person was ⁠killed on Monday in a shooting involving US immigration agents in Maine, according to a statement attributed to a prominent state lawmaker, days ⁠after a man ⁠was killed by an immigration agent during a traffic stop in Texas.

Word of the shooting ⁠in Biddeford, Maine, came in a post by the Maine state house’s speaker, Ryan Fecteau, on a personal Facebook ⁠page.

“This morning a shooting occurred in Biddeford,” Fecteau’s post said. Referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), his post continued: “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.”

The shooting occurred at approximately 7.20am, a man named Lucas Scott – described as an eyewitness – told the Biddeford Gazette. Scott described seeing “at least two officers” in green ICE vests gathered around a white sedan stopped at an intersection, according to the outlet.

He said the agents were yelling “very loudly” and that he heard at least four gunshots.

Local media said authorities closed a road and local law enforcement were joined by FBI officials at a crime scene in Biddeford, a city of more than ‌21,000 people that is about 15 miles south of Portland and 90 miles north of Boston.

Crowds were seen gathering in protest a relatively short time after the shooting, according to Maine’s Portland Press Herald.

ICE and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials could not be immediately reached for comment. Biddeford police did not comment to Reuters and referred an inquiry from the news wire service to ICE. And the mayor did not immediately respond to ⁠a Reuters request for comment.

Former Maine state senator Troy Jackson, who is running for the Democratic nomination for a Maine US Senate seat after party primary winner Graham Platner suspended his campaign for the post, said on X that he had “been alerted to the fatal ICE shooting in Biddeford” on Monday morning.

“Our team is monitoring this situation very closely and will [provide] updates as we learn more,” Jackson wrote. “My heart is with Biddeford – and with all Mainers.”

Jackson added in a follow-up post, in part: “Our immigrant communities are under attack by ICE.” Among other things, he also said the agency “must be abolished”.

According to the Press Herald, Biddeford mayor Liam Fountain in January called the concept of immigration enforcement in the city “deeply unsettling”. He said Biddeford had been “shaped over time by immigrants and others who came here seeking safety, work and the opportunity to build a life”.

The case in Biddeford was six days after an ICE agent in Houston fatally shot a man identified as local builder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while officers were trying to stop his vehicle.

Witnesses have denied that Salgado ever “weaponized” his vehicle during the encounter despite ICE’s claims that the agent who killed Salgado fired in justifiable self-defense.

A DHS spokesperson has said Salgado was not the target of an ICE arrest operation in progress at the time of his killing. But ICE agents attempted to stop his van because there was an individual inside who merely “resembled the target”, a statement from the spokesperson said.

Salgado’s death marked the 10th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials in the US since the second Trump administration took office in early 2025, a review of public reports by the Guardian shows.

Those include the shooting deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of immigration officials in Minneapolis in separate cases in January.

The killings of Salgado, Good, Pretti and other similar cases have prompted protests.