Wrong Man Killed — Feds Admit It?

Close-up of an ICE officer badge on a black jacket — ICE SHOCKER

The most chilling detail in the Biddeford ICE shooting is this: the man who died was not the target of the federal operation, according to the nation’s top homeland security official and a sitting U.S. senator.

Story Snapshot

A 26-year-old Colombian man was shot and killed by an immigration agent during a warrant operation in Biddeford, Maine.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Senator Angus King the victim was not the target of the warrant.
Federal officials say the officer fired after the man tried to flee and “weaponize” his vehicle.
The case fits a growing pattern of deadly ICE encounters and raises hard questions about accountability and mistaken identity.

A deadly operation with the wrong man in the crosshairs

Federal immigration agents moved into a Biddeford neighborhood early Monday to carry out what they called a targeted operation against an illegal immigrant with a final deportation order.

Officials say they were watching the person’s last known address when a man left in a white vehicle and drove away. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tried to stop the car. State officials later said the driver attempted to flee “in the direction of the officer,” and the agent fired, killing him in the street.

The person 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 Mullin told him. pic.twitter.com/wVwltUUul2

— Boston 25 News (@boston25) July 13, 2026

Immigrant advocacy groups quickly identified the victim as a 26-year-old man from Colombia who had legal permission to work in the United States and a Social Security number.

Neighbors described a young father living an ordinary life, not someone hiding from the law. That contrast alone raises the stakes. This was not a chaotic border chase. This was a planned, local enforcement action at a known address in a quiet Maine city.

How the “not the target” bombshell emerged

At first, top officials treated the man as the subject of the deportation warrant. Senator Angus King told reporters that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin briefed him on a man who had supposedly “weaponized” his vehicle before being shot.

Hours later, everything changed. King’s spokesman said Mullin had called back to correct the record and now told the senator the victim “was not the target of the warrant.” Multiple outlets repeated that phrase, locking it into the public narrative.

That single correction matters more than any press talking point. Mullin is the cabinet official responsible for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If he tells a United States senator that agents killed the wrong person during a warrant operation, that is not a minor slip.

That is an admission of a fundamental failure: the government aimed at one individual and ended up killing another. From a rule-of-law view, that is exactly the kind of error that should trigger tough oversight, not excuses.

What federal officials say happened in those crucial seconds

The Department of Homeland Security sent a short, carefully worded statement about the shooting. A spokesperson said agents were conducting “targeted surveillance” on the address of a person with a final removal order when “an illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle.”

Agents tried to stop the car. Officials say the driver attempted to flee, and “fearing for public safety,” one officer fired his weapon. Mullin later added that the man “weaponized” the vehicle, echoing language used in other recent ICE shootings.

That claim is doing a lot of work. If the car is seen as a weapon, the shooting sounds like a necessary response rather than a blunder. But there is no body camera footage from the agents, and the federal government has not released any video of the exact moment the shots were fired.

Local surveillance clips show the aftermath and agents pulling a limp body from the vehicle, not the split-second decision to shoot. That gap leaves citizens judging the case on trust alone, and trust in official narratives on immigration shootings is already strained.

A pattern of mistaken identity and shifting stories

The Biddeford killing is not an isolated case. In Houston, less than a week earlier, immigration agents shot and killed a Mexican man during a traffic stop, then later admitted he was not the person they were targeting in that operation.

A Reuters review of six violent encounters under the Trump administration found that official accounts were often contradicted later by evidence, including a Minnesota case where immigration agents shot a Venezuelan immigrant who was not their original target.

Senator King is now demanding a “full and transparent investigation” led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Homeland Security inspector general, a move that aligns with basic values: limited government does not mean unaccountable government.

When armed officers kill a person who was not even the intended target, Americans deserve more than a vague statement about a “weaponized” vehicle. They need the warrant, the timeline, the names, and a clear chain of responsibility.