Pingree, King say man killed by ICE not the target of warrant

Jul 13, 2026 | 6:04 pm ET

By Kaitlyn Budion

Pingree, King say man killed by ICE not the target of warrant

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree hands out red roses to demonstrators at the No Kings demonstration in York, Maine. “People are angry, they want to know what to do, want to do something, they want to fight back,” she said. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)

The 26-year-old Colombian man killed by immigration agents in Biddeford was not the target of agents’ warrant, according to U.S. Sen. Angus King and Rep. Chellie Pingree.

In a video on social media on Monday afternoon, Pingree said she was told the victim was not the target of the operation. The video caption added that even if the victim was the target of an operation, “this shooting would NOT have been justified.”

“It’s hard to even say this, it’s horrendous they are operating the way they are in our state, and we absolutely have to get to the bottom of this,” Pingree said.

She also said it’s possible the victim’s family was present at the shooting, including a 3-year-old child wearing Bluey pajamas.

In a statement Monday, an ICE spokesperson did not address whether the victim was the target of immigrations agents or not, saying only that “ICE was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal.”

King’s office told Maine’s Total Coverage the same thing late Monday afternoon, saying Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told the senator that the victim of the shooting was not the target of immigration officers’ warrant.

King’s staff did not immediately respond to Maine Morning Star’s request for comment.

Earlier in the day, Mullin had reportedly told King that the victim had “weaponized” a vehicle, an allegation DHS repeated in several previous ICE-involved shootings, including one earlier this month where agents shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Araujo in Houston.

In a statement announcing an investigation, the Maine Attorney General’s Office said the immigration agent who shot the man “was conducting an enforcement operation related to a final order of removal when the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot.”

The agent will be put on leave, according to the statement.

Hundreds of people attended a protest in downtown Biddeford following the shooting, calling for an investigation and for the federal immigration agency to cease its operations in Maine. Several Biddeford residents said they had observed an uptick in ICE activity in the city recently.