Angus King

Reaction from the Maine political world came pouring in after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a man Monday morning in Biddeford.

The state’s two U.S. senators, Susan Collins and Angus King, shared notably different amounts of information in the hours after shooting, with Collins saying little as the lone Republican member of Maine’s congressional delegation. King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, told reporters he spoke with President Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary by phone to learn more details early on about the fatal shooting.

The shooting occurred after 7 a.m. Monday near the intersection of Hill and Pool streets in downtown Biddeford. A federal immigration agent fatally shot a man who had “attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer,” Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office said.

Immigrant rights organizations said a 26-year-old man from Colombia whose name has not been released died in the shooting. Presente! Maine said the man was authorized to work in the U.S. and had a Social Security number.

Protesters gathered by the scene Monday and entered Collins’ district office in Biddeford. The deadly incident occurred during a high-profile midterm election year in Maine, where the U.S. Senate race descended into chaos last week with Democrat Graham Platner’s exit — and where candidates for various seats have faced questions over their support for ICE.

Here’s how major Maine political figures have reacted.

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U.S. SEN. SUSAN COLLINS

Collins, who sought to take credit for the end of the high-profile ICE operation that President Donald Trump’s administration carried out in Maine in January, put out a brief statement Monday afternoon that said the shooting in Biddeford “requires a full and impartial investigation of what happened.”

“It is my understanding that the Biddeford police have secured the site, and the FBI is investigating,” Collins said.

In June, Collins voted to pass a roughly $70 billion, Republican-backed budget bill to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection through 2029.

Collins, who is seeking a sixth term in November, and her spokespeople did not immediately share more comment Monday afternoon on the protests at her district office on Main Street in Biddeford. About two dozen demonstrators chanting “vote her out” marched into the office’s entryway as a crowd of several hundred outside chanted “ICE out now!”

U.S. SEN. ANGUS KING

King shared more details while speaking with reporters around noon Monday at the Portland International Jetport. King said he spoke by phone with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin about the Biddeford shooting and that the FBI will lead the investigation.

King said Mullin, a Trump ally and former senator from Oklahoma, told him the man who was killed was in his 20s and had orders to leave the country. Mullin also said there was a warrant out for the man’s arrest, according to King.

King said Mullin told him the ICE agents involved were not wearing body cameras. He said Mullin told him body cameras for ICE agents were being distributed across the county. The cameras had apparently not made it to Biddeford yet, King said.

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“What I said to the secretary was, ‘We want a full, transparent and open investigation of this matter,'” King said, adding agents “should have been having body cameras two years ago when this whole thing started.”

King said the investigation should determine what the victim did with his vehicle and whether it justified the use of deadly force. King said Mullin told him the man who was shot “weaponized his vehicle,” but witness accounts have so far painted different pictures of what happened.

King said Mullin did not indicate how many ICE agents were currently in Maine. King said he was focused on this incident specifically but would follow up about what ICE is doing and whom they are targeting.

He said he was concerned about what occurred during the ICE surge dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day” from January and whether similar activity will occur in Maine again.

U.S. REP. CHELLIE PINGREE

Pingree, a Democrat whose 1st District includes Biddeford, said in a Monday morning video posted to Instagram that she had similar questions. (U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, represents the 2nd District. Golden had not commented on the shooting as of Monday afternoon.)

“More than anything else, I want to know, why are you in Maine?” Pingree said, directing that to ICE agents. “Every report we hear is about somebody being picked up who legally was here, and is this going to be another one of those stories?”

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GOV. JANET MILLS

Mills, a Democrat, put out a brief statement Monday morning saying she had been “briefed on the fatal shooting in Biddeford this morning involving federal law enforcement.”

Mills added that state police, the attorney general’s office, the chief medical examiner’s office and federal officials are working to “determine the facts of what occurred this morning.”

DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE HANNAH PINGREE

Former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree, who is running for governor, said a “life was lost in Biddeford this morning in a shooting involving ICE.”

“I’m monitoring closely and will share updates as they come,” Pingree wrote on social media. “Every Mainer deserves safety and security in their own community, along with transparency and a thorough, independent investigation into what happened.”

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FOR SENATE

Numerous Democratic candidates who are running to replace Platner on the U.S. Senate ballot by winning the nomination at a special party convention later this month put out statements Monday that reiterated past calls for ICE to either get abolished or sharply restructured.

FORMER GOV. PAUL LEPAGE

LePage, the Republican who is running for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, said in a social media post around 2:50 p.m. Monday that the “events which took place in Biddeford this morning remind us all to remain calm and allow for a full, transparent and fair investigation before rushing to judgement without all of the details.”

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“The Department of Homeland Security has indicated they will pursue a transparent investigation. Our men and women at all levels of law enforcement are often in situations where they have to make split-second decisions in rapidly changing situations,” LePage said. “In any incident like this, law enforcement, and the deceased, deserve a fair process that carefully examines all of the facts. Any loss of life is tragic but anyone who would seek to politicize this incident to try and perpetuate illegal immigration is wrong.”

MAINE HOUSE SPEAKER RYAN FECTEAU

Fecteau, a Biddeford Democrat, said Monday morning that an ICE agent fatally shot the man before issuing a statement a few minutes before 12:30 p.m. that said ICE “was involved” in the shooting.

“Our community is shaken by this incident. We are heartbroken that someone lost their life. We deserve answers about why lethal force was used and why an operation was being carried out in our streets,” Fecteau said. “I also know that our immigrant neighbors are particularly impacted by this violence. I want them to know that their elected leaders, their neighbors and their state is here for them.”

The Maine incident comes less than a week after an ICE agent fatally shot a Mexican man in Houston, setting off protests in Texas and reportedly marking at least the 10th person whom federal immigration agents have fatally shot nationwide during Trump’s second term.

Monday’s shooting also came amid advocates and residents continuing to report increased ICE activity in Biddeford and other Maine cities in recent months. In January, the Trump administration targeted Maine with a ramped-up ICE operation that saw about 200 people arrested, the majority of whom had no criminal convictions or pending charges.

Staff writers Sophie Burchell, Dylan Tusinski, Morgan Womack and Gillian Graham contributed to this story.

This is a developing story.