The man killed by ICE in front of his 3-year-old daughter in Maine has been identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, a Colombian national.
Guerrero was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday, the second fatal shooting in a week that has involved ICE.
Guerrero was driving to work when ICE agents rammed his car while attempting to execute a warrant for a final order of removal. They then fired several shots through the windshield, killing him as his 3-year-old daughter, wearing Bluey pajamas, stood crying in the street. His wife was on her knees next to their daughter, giving what one onlooker described as an agonizing howl.
“I heard agony,” local resident Mary Hayes told The New York Times. “I heard a howl that came from your soul, that your whole life had just changed and it was never going to be the same.”
In a statement released by DHS almost 12 hours after the shooting, the department claimed that the officer responsible for the shooting discharged his weapon because of a concern for public safety. In statements provided to some members of Congress, the department claimed that the driver had “weaponized his vehicle toward law enforcement.” No evidence substantiating this claim has been made public.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS for confirmation of Guerrero’s identity.
According to Maine Senator Angus King, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed that Guerrero was not the subject of the warrant. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said that Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S. and had been issued a Social Security number.
Guerrero’s identity was confirmed by one of his neighbors, who spoke to The Portland Press Herald, and an immigrant advocacy organization. According to his social media, he was from Bucaramanga, a city in north-central Colombia.
His neighbor said that while he had not spoken with Guerrero much, he was confident the man was innocent, telling the Press Herald, “He was just trying to escape. I just know it.”
Guerrero’s social media paints a portrait of a devoted father. Alongside photos of his daughter, many of his posts focus on fatherhood and father-daughter relationships.
The Colombian embassy said in a statement that it was providing the necessary consular assistance to Guerrero’s family and had requested information and clarification from DHS regarding the circumstances surrounding his death.
Maine Governor Janet Mills released a brief statement confirming that state law enforcement was working with federal authorities to “determine the facts of what occurred this morning.”
After it was confirmed that Guerrero was not the target of the warrant being executed, Mills wrote on X, “This development makes this tragedy even more disturbing and infuriating, and it underscores the reckless and haphazard manner in which immigration enforcement operations are being conducted in Maine and across the country. This has to end.”
Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins called for a “full and impartial investigation‚” as did Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain, who told CNN’s Elex Michaelson on Monday night that he had not heard from ICE directly, but had been receiving information from the governor’s office and from Sen. King.
“We will get answers, but we do not have them yet,” he told local reporters earlier in the day.
Guerrero was killed less than one week after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican man who had lived in the U.S. for 35 years, was shot and killed by ICE agents in Houston.
As in Guerrero’s case, agents sought to justify the shooting by claiming that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized the vehicle” he was driving in order to run them over.
The Department of Homeland Security leveled similar accusations against 37-year-old mom-of-three Renee Good when she was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis in January.
The department’s version of events, echoed by President Donald Trump, appeared to contradict available video evidence that showed Good turning away from the officers when she was shot.
