Joan Sebastian Guerrero, Biddeford, Maine man and Colombian migrant shot dead by ICE amid allegations he accelerated and tried to run over arresting agents during deportation operation.
A 26-year-old ‘illegal’ migrant hailing from Colombia was fatally shot by ICE in Maine during a deportation operation on Monday. Th victim it has since been revealed was not the individual agents had sought to arrest.
Video captured Joan Sebastian Guerrero being handcuffed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after moments earlier being shot during a confrontation. The alleged illegal immigrant would mortally succumb to his gun shot wounds moments later.
In a released statement, ICE, described Guerrero as an ‘illegal alien‘ who had ‘attempted to flee the scene’ of a traffic stop when a federal agent fired while ‘fearing for public safety.’
Target ICE operation gone wrong
ICE agents were in the area to conduct ‘targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal.’
‘The driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. He passed away from his injuries,’ an Homeland Security said in a statement.
The shooting is scheduled to be investigated by DHS’ Office of Inspector General.
‘This is a developing situation, and we will update the public when more information is available,’ the agency said.
One of Guerrero’s neighbors, Nelson Elias, told The Portland Press Herald he was convinced of Guerrero’s innocence and that the migrant had not sought to accelerate and run over the arresting agents.
‘He was just trying to escape. I just know it,’ said Elias, who did not witness the shooting.
Acclrating towards ICE agents?
Maine Senator Angus King said Monday that he was informed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that Guerrero was not the target of the arrest warrant.
Guerrero was killed early on Monday morning in the coastal town of Biddeford. ICE agents seeking to detain him claimed he accelerated his car towards them.
Witnesses said Guerrero was driving his white Kia sedan when an ICE agent opened fire and shot him in the head through his front windshield.
The shooting unfolded in front of Guerrero’s family, with his toddler-age daughter watching on while wearing Bluey pajamas, according to witness Cecilia Humiston.
The witness told the Portland Press Herald that an older woman was at the scene yelling at the ICE officers, ‘You took her dad, you took her dad’, and claimed a ‘rude’ officer also yelled at the young girl as she tried to smell flowers nearby.
‘I saw his wife and the daughter crying….’
Another witness, Daniel Boucher, 71, told NBC News that he heard a barrage of shots fired during the commotion, before seeing the migrant being pulled from a white Kia car with his head bleeding profusely.
In his final words before dying on the sidewalk, Guerrero told the ICE officers, ‘I tried to stop’, according to Boucher.
Neighbor Nelson Elias said he recognized the man from his job at a restaurant. The slain man worked for DoorDash and had picked up from the restaurant where Elias worked.
Elias said he heard six shots Monday. ‘I saw his wife and the daughter, you know, crying on the street,’ he said.
Authorized to work in the U.S
Immigration advocacy groups said Guerrero had authorization to work in the US and had a social security numberaccording to two organizations, Presente! and the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition.
Angus King – who originally said there was a warrant out for Guerrero’s arrest – is now saying DHS Secretary Mullin told him that is not the case.
‘The secretary shared information with Sen. King as he understood it at the time, and once that info changed, he shared that with Sen. King,’ a spokesperson for King said.
‘Sen. King wanted to make sure that when he heard differently from the secretary, that Maine knew.’
Political fallout
In a statement following outrage over the ICE shooting, the Office of the Maine Attorney General said agents opened fire when Guerrero ‘attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer.’
Separate Ring camera footage obtained from inside a nearby home by The Maine Wire captured the sound of the deadly confrontation, as a barrage of around five shots were fired.
Photos taken in the aftermath showed several bullet holes on the windshield of the white Kia sedan being driven by the victim when he was killed.
Witness Lucas Scott, 18, told the Press Herald that he was driving through the intersection moments before the shooting, and saw a group of unmarked vehicles descend on another car.
He said he saw agents in ICE uniforms confronting the driver of the vehicle, seconds before an agent pulled his weapon and ordered Guerrero to exit his car.
‘The car was put into drive and was trying to hit the ICE officer,’ Scott said. He said he then heard the ICE agent fire several shots quickly.
Locals say ICE had been operating in the town for about a week, and their presence was known throughout the area.
Shooting sparks protests
The shooting quickly sparked protests, with one demonstration heading to Maine’s Republican Senator Susan Mills’ office as others filled the streets.
Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said she was ‘deeply disturbed and angry’ by the news.
‘I, of course, need to know all of the answers here,’ the Democrat said.
Pingree said she wanted to know if the ICE agents were pursuing a migrant with a criminal record or if the shooting was a routine traffic stop, but added, ‘More than anything else, I want to know why you’re in Maine?’
‘Every report we hear is about somebody being picked up who legally was here, and is this going to be another one of those stories?’
The Maine shooting comes less than a week after ICE officers in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was driving a van they were chasing. DHS has said the man “weaponized” the van by trying to run over ICE officers, but some Texas officials have questioned that narrative.
Scrutiny on ICE activities comes in the aftermath of the fatal shootings of anti-ICE protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota earlier this year.
Those deaths sparked national outrage and widespread protests, part of a broader opposition to the Trump administration’s controversial immigration agenda and widespread deportation efforts.
The shooting on Monday has quickly led to calls for protest, with the social justice group Biddeford Saco for Racial Justice saying on Facebook that it would be holding a demonstration within a matter of hours.
‘Folks are really upset,‘ the group said. ‘I imagine there will be more.’
Stated a Facebook post: ‘No more ICE!
