BIDDEFORD, Maine — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told officers on Tuesday to suspend most vehicle stops around the country, two sources briefed on the matter said, after agents shot and killed two men six days apart during stops in Texas and Maine.
The policy shift came one day after an ICE officer killed a driver in the coastal Maine town of Biddeford, about 15 miles south of Portland.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a statement almost 12 hours after the shooting claiming the officer, “fearing for public safety,” fired when the driver attempted to flee.
Officials didn’t explain how the driver posed a threat to the public or whether that would justify the shooting. According to ICE policy, officers may use deadly force only when there is “imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death to the officer or to another person” and is not authorized “solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect.”
People are also reading…
While some video footage of the incident’s aftermath emerged, there is not yet public video showing the moment of the shooting itself. Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, told reporters the agents were not wearing body cameras.
DHS said the agents were watching the last known address of someone with a final order of removal from the country. When someone departed the residence, the officers followed the car, the agency said.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told King the man killed was not the target of the operation, according to a spokesperson for the senator.
Immigration advocates said the person shot was a 26-year-old man from Colombia who was authorized to work in the U.S. The shooting sparked immediate protests Monday, and further demonstrations took place Tuesday.
On social media, Colombian President Gustavo Petro blamed the U.S. government for killing the man, whom he identified as Johan Sebastian Duran.
“He was killed because he was believed to be an inferior being with no rights,” Petro wrote.
Duran, who grew up in Bucaramanga, Colombia, had a partner and a young daughter and worked two jobs, including as a food delivery driver, the Portland Press Herald reported. Nearby residents told the newspaper that his partner and daughter witnessed the aftermath of the shooting and could be heard crying in the street.
Tucson to get a Teso Life store
