On Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed a target of a removal order. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security announced the victim was not the intended target, and officers had killed a civilian.
The Colombian Embassy identified the victim as Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old delivery driver and cleaner, husband and father of a 3-year-old girl. Guerrero had legal status and no removal order at the time of the shooting, according to the victim’s father, the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and activist group Presente!
The Immigrants' Rights Coalition expressed its condolences in a statement Monday, demanding a thorough investigation. The Coalition also voiced some Biddeford residents’ concerns following the tragedy, stating how “members of our community were still reporting ICE activity and fearing that others could be detained or harmed.”
This incident is the second in a week, following the July 7 murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, who was also not the target of an ICE enforcement operation.
The Department of Homeland Security wrote in an X post that agents were surveilling the area to issue a final order of removal. The post alleged ICE tried to stop Guerrero’s car, which traced back to the home address of the removal order.
“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” the department wrote.
DHS did not identify the man or provide a reason for the agent’s “fearing for public safety” in its statement.
The post came after Maine U.S. Senator Angus King said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the suspect tried to use his vehicle as a weapon, which led to the shooting.
King’s office shared with Maine’s Total Coverage late Monday that Secretary Mullin told him ICE incorrectly identified Guerrero as the removal order’s target.
In light of the contradiction, Maine’s Office of the Attorney General announced it would investigate the shooting in collaboration with federal authorities. Several Maine lawmakers proceeded to urge a thorough and transparent investigation in a letter to the DHS Office of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari.
Camera footage from a nearby business shows a law enforcement SUV blocking a white car making slow circles on the street. Agents then proceeded to open the vehicle door and drag a limp body onto the street. A witness said he heard the victim say, “I tried to stop.”
Following this attack and last week’s Houston murder, the Trump administration ordered ICE to temporarily cease traffic stop operations pending both investigations. White House border czar Tom Homan, in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, said it was a “short pause just to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”
Within hours, demonstrators and supporters gathered near the murder site on Monday to protest with signs that read “No ICE Stop ICE” and “Stop Killing Us,” among others.
Maine Democratic state Sen. Mattie Daughtry attended a protest near an ICE facility on Tuesday.
“We need to never see this happen in the streets of Biddeford, Maine, and in this country,” she said. “Never forget the human toll of what has happened here.”
Contact Aaron Zagal Yaji at azagal@alligator.org. Follow him on X @azagalyaji.
Aaron Zagal Yaji is a Public Relations and Economics freshman in his first semester at The Alligator. He covers El Caimán's metro beat. In his free time, he enjoys going to the beach (or reminiscing about it), cooking Peruvian food, and squandering his money on golden shiny things.
