Angus King

BIDDEFORD, Maine -- The motorist killed by ICE officers in a Maine shooting Monday was not the target of the warrant the officers were executing, Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him.

It's the second time in a week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have used deadly force and at least the ninth since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.

Immigrant rights groups identified the man who was killed as a 26-year-old native of Colombia.

King, I-Maine, said Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against officers in Biddeford, a coastal city roughly 15 miles southwest of Portland.

"He was in a vehicle -- pulled out in the vehicle, and the term the secretary used was 'weaponized' the vehicle and was shot by an ICE agent," King said.

King had initially said Mullin told him the man was the target of a deportation effort. Mullin later called King with new information he had received, a spokesperson for the senator said.

The Maine attorney general's office, which is investigating along with the FBI and other agencies, said initial statements suggest the motorist was trying to flee in the direction of the agent. The office said the agent who killed him has been placed on leave.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Messages seeking comment were left for ICE and the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Daniel Boucher said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing a "pop, pop, pop" sound and saw a small car "turned 90 degrees to the curb" with an SUV behind it. The driver was wounded and the car started moving down the street until the SUV hit it again, Boucher said.

"His face was bloody. His head was bloody," Boucher said, getting choked up. "I clearly heard the victim say, 'I tried to stop' -- clearly heard him say that."

Boucher said he saw an ICE officer bring a medical bag to where the man was lying before an ambulance and fire truck arrived. At one point, Boucher said, the agent who shot the man walked close to him.

"I was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, 'He tried to run me over,' or something to that effect," Boucher said. "I don't remember his exact words."

Two advocacy groups -- the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and Presente! -- said the man who was killed was authorized to work in the U.S.

Mary Hayes, who lives close to where the shooting happened, said the man lived nearby with his wife and daughter.

"I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband's dead body on the ground," Hayes told the AP as she held a piece of cardboard with "No ICE, Stop ICE" written on it. "I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she's never going to see her father again."

The Colombian Embassy said it is in contact with U.S. authorities and "working to formally confirm the individual's identity and nationality."

Cory Poulin, whose family runs a laundromat near the scene, told the AP that security cameras at the business captured footage of the man's car rolling into the intersection after shots were fired. Other images from the scene showed the car going in circles and bullet holes in its windshield.

He said Maine State Police asked that he not release the footage publicly.

The agents involved in the shooting didn't have body-worn cameras, King said.

ICE had a significant presence in Maine earlier this year, which prompted several protests. Immigration officials later said in late January that they had ceased "enhanced operations" in Maine after hundreds of arrests.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Sisak, Aaron Kessler and Kate Brumback of The Associated Press.