Federal agents fatally shot a man in Biddeford, Maine who was not the intended target of the arrest warrant they were executing, Sen. Angus King's office confirmed Monday after the senator relayed a correction from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. The revision hollows out the government's initial account while leaving the central legal question, whether the use of deadly force was justified, entirely open.
What the DHS secretary told King, and then changed
King, an independent from Maine, said Mullin first told him the man killed was the target of an immigration enforcement operation and had been ordered to leave the country. Mullin then initiated a follow-up call to correct that account. "He called me back. He initiated a call to me to say he had learned subsequently that he was not the target of the warrant," King told Fox News.
That sequence matters. King had already told reporters Monday afternoon, citing Mullin directly, that the victim had "weaponized" his vehicle before being shot. That characterization now rests on shakier ground. The vehicle incident itself is not disputed in current accounts, but the person involved was not who agents were looking for.
ICE offered its version separately. Agents were conducting "targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal," a spokesperson said. When a man left that residence in a vehicle and ICE attempted a stop, the vehicle tried to flee. An officer fired, struck the driver, and the man died from his injuries. The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine identified him as a 26-year-old Colombian man who had come to Maine to live and work.
The investigation King is pushing for
King pressed Mullin for a full, transparent, and open investigation from the outset. One significant complication emerged immediately: no body cameras were active on the agents, leaving no video record of the shooting. The FBI is leading the investigation because it involved a federal operation. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also called for a "full and impartial investigation." Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, said state police were cooperating with local and federal officials. The Biddeford Police Department confirmed it responded to the scene at Pool and Hill streets.
The counterargument ICE will press
The counterargument, and it carries weight, is that the legal question of force does not turn solely on whether the correct person was targeted. ICE's account describes a vehicle attempting to flee during a lawful enforcement stop, with an officer firing out of fear for public safety. If that narrative holds under scrutiny, the fact that this man was not the warrant's subject does not automatically make the shooting unlawful.
King acknowledged that framing himself. "The question is, what did he do with his vehicle? Were officers threatened? Was this... rising to the level that justified deadly force?" he said. Those are the questions the investigation must answer.
On balance
The facts resolved so far are narrow. A man in his 20s is dead. He was not the person named in the warrant. Citing Ronald Reagan, King said his approach would be to "trust but verify," and he stated his intention to ensure state and local officials are kept in the process. What that process is working without is body camera footage: agents had none active, leaving the question of what happened at Pool and Hill streets in Biddeford to investigators alone.