
A person was reportedly killed in the US state of Maine during an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Speaker of the Maine House, Democrat Ryan Fecteau, wrote on Facebook the shooting occurred Monday morning in the coastal city of Biddeford, roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland.
“This morning a shooting occurred in Biddeford. A person was killed. ICE was involved,” Mr Fecteau wrote.
“State Police and the Department of Public Safety are now on scene to gather details and would expect the FBI to investigate as well.”
The speaker said those were the only details he had but he would be providing updates later on Monday.
If an ICE officer did fatally shoot someone, it would be the second fatality at the hands of the agency in a week, after a man was shot in Houston, Texas.
It would also be at least the ninth death from an encounter with federal immigration officials since the start of US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Project Relief, an immigrant rights group, wrote in a social media post that one of its community members was killed “during an encounter with ICE in Biddeford” and that it was in contact with the person’s family.
“This was a young person whose life was cut short,” the group said.
Read more:
What is ICE and what powers do its agents have?
Governor Janet Mills issued a statement saying she had been briefed on the fatal shooting “involving Federal law enforcement” and that the state police were at the scene and working with the state attorney general’s office, chief medical examiner’s office and federal officials to determine what happened.
“I know that situations like these are alarming and frightening,” said Ms Mills, a Democrat.
ICE and the Maine Department of Public Safety were approached for comment by the Associated Press.
Kristen Setera, an FBI spokesperson, said the FBI “responded to assist on-scene immediately following this morning’s shooting incident in Biddeford, Maine,” but she declined to comment further.
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