ICE agents involved in Biddeford shooting, lawmaker and local authorities confirm

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were involved in a fatal shooting in Biddeford Monday morning, according to Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau. 

ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security have responded to requests for comment. However, Biddeford Police Department said in a statement to media that the local department responded to calls about an incident at the corner of Pool and Hill streets and that ICE personnel were involved. Biddeford police declined to answer questions to Maine Morning Star. 

That area of town remained taped off by police through Monday morning. 

“A person was killed. ICE was involved,” Fecteau, who lives in Biddeford, wrote on social media Monday morning. “State Police and the Department of Public Safety are now on scene to gather details and would expect the FBI to investigate as well. These are the details that I have at this time. I will provide further updates, as they are relayed to me.”

Aside from the Biddeford incident, there have been at least 21 shootings, 10 of them fatal, involving immigration agents during president Donald Trump’s second term. Earlier this month, immigration agents fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Araujo in Houston. 

The Biddeford Gazette spoke with an eyewitness who said he saw at least two ICE agents wearing green vests and surrounding a white sedan at 7:20 a.m. on Monday. The eyewitness, Biddeford resident Lucas Scott, told the outlet he was driving through the intersection of Hill and Pool Street when he saw flashing lights on an unmarked white Ford Explorer. 

Scott says he drove through the intersection and he saw at least two officers wearing green ICE vests who surrounded a white sedan with their weapons drawn. He also said he heard at least four gunshots.

Gov. Janet Mills said Maine State Police are at the scene supporting the Attorney General’s Office, Maine’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner and federal officials to determine the facts of what occurred this morning. 

“I have been briefed on the fatal shooting in Biddeford this morning involving Federal law enforcement,” Mills said in a statement. “I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening.”

Crowds have since begun to gather in downtown Biddeford and at the perimeter of the blocked off streets in protest. Troy Jackson and Nirav Shah, who are both vying to replace Graham Platner as the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, will also be attending a protest in Mechanics Park Monday afternoon. 

“Our immigrant communities are under attack by ICE and today we lost a Mainer to that violence,” Jackson said in a statement. “For too long, ICE agents have been abducting our neighbors in brazen violation of the Constitution, and today, they have tragically escalated even further. This rogue agency must be abolished.”

Other candidates have commented publicly about the shooting as well.

“Someone is dead. I don’t have details, and won’t speculate,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is now running for U.S. Senate, said on X. “But this is at least the 11th fatal shooting involving ICE or Border Patrol under Trump. It’s time to get ICE off our streets.” 

Some Mainers protesting said they want those candidates to vow if elected to not give federal immigration agents any more money until behavior changes. 

“I want an investigation,” Democratic state Rep. Marc Malon of Biddeford told Maine Morning Star. Malon said he wants the state involved with that investigation “because frankly I don’t trust anything ICE has to say right now.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said her office is also working to get more information.