Video shows crash during Sanford ICE detainment that prompted local police response
Federal agents detained a man during a traffic stop near Brook and High streets Thursday morning, according to Sanford police. As agents attempted to stop the man, he reversed into one of their vehicles, police say. (Abigail Driscoll/Staff Writer)
Sanford police responded to the scene of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention Thursday morning after federal agents reported a car crash and unattended children.
ICE detained a man during a traffic stop near Brook and High streets around 9 a.m., Sanford police say. As agents attempted to stop the man, he reversed into one of their vehicles, according to a police account and a video shared with the Portland Press Herald.
Footage captured by a nearby resident’s bird feeder camera shows the two SUVs block the driver in, at which point he reverses into the vehicle behind him. The short clip doesn’t show the rest of the detention.
Sanford police Chief Eric Small said federal agents called dispatch after the crash, prompting a response by Sanford police. Police officers also assisted with a 1-year-old who was found in the man’s car.
Officials say no one was injured, though the 1-year-old was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Immigration officials did not immediately respond to questions about the man’s detention.
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U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree criticized the incident as “yet another instance of ICE’s aggressive operations putting public safety at risk,” pointing to the fatal July shooting of a Biddeford man during an attempted traffic stop.
‘PRETTY SCARY’
Federal agents told police they used two of their vehicles to block the front and back of the car that the man was driving, according to the Sanford Police Department. A neighbor who witnessed the detention, Wendy Deflaminis, said the man had just pulled out of his driveway when the two ICE vehicles drove up from either side and cornered his vehicle.
The man then reversed, crashing into one of the federal vehicles. Deflaminis said it looked as though the man was trying to navigate around the vehicles until he backed into the one behind him. Small said there was no major damage and that the driver was moving at a “very low speed.”
After the crash, the agents told the driver to stop and put his hands up, and he appeared to comply, Deflaminis said. Federal agents then escorted him into a car.
Once the man had been detained, agents appeared to notice that a 1-year-old was sitting in a car seat in the rear of the vehicle, Deflaminis said. She recalled asking whether someone should call an ambulance to ensure the baby was safe, to which the agents responded that they had already called for one.
“It was pretty scary,” Deflaminis said.
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Sanford police say the baby was not properly restrained in a car seat and was taken to MaineHealth Maine Medical Center Sanford out of “an abundance of caution.” Small and Assistant Fire Chief Brian Watkins both said no one was injured.
Small said the police department did not assist with the federal detention and that he did not know the man’s name. Deflaminis did not know the man’s name either but said he lived nearby.
Emergency personnel also evaluated the driver, who is the baby’s father, while he was handcuffed in the back of a federal vehicle, Small said. The man “was under a lot of stress,” Small said, and reportedly told federal agents that he had two more children unattended at his nearby home.
Child Protective Services and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services were contacted to ensure the welfare of the other two children, who are 9 and 2 years old, according to a news release from the Sanford Police Department. Small said those children are now with a family friend who was able to take them in via an arrangement with CPS.
“(The ICE agents) were very forthcoming,” Small said. “They wanted what was best for the children as well.”
Small said the man’s vehicle was towed from the scene.
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PINGREE CALLS FOR VIDEO RELEASE
Officials with ICE, U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for more information about the incident.
In a written statement, Pingree, D-1st District, called on the federal agencies to promptly release any footage of the incident, including from body-worn and dashboard cameras.
Referencing the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, the congresswoman said that “it is entirely understandable that a father confronted by ICE — with his one-year-old in the car and two more children at home — would be terrified when federal agents box in his car.”
Durán Guerrero, 25, was shot and killed by an ICE agent on the morning of July 13 while driving in a Biddeford neighborhood; officials have said he was not the intended target of ICE’s operation.
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the senator has been “very clear” about his opposition to how ICE is operating under the Trump administration.
Spokespeople for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday afternoon.
Staff Writer Drew Johnson contributed to this report.
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Tagged: ICE, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, york county
Abigail is a community reporter for Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Sanford, and Wells. She recently moved up to Maine from Connecticut after getting her bachelor’s degree in English/Journalism at the University. More by Abigail Driscoll
Morgan covers breaking news and public safety for the Portland Press Herald. Before moving to Maine in 2024, she reported for Michigan State University's student-run publication, as well as the Indianapolis. More by Morgan Womack
