ICE Agent Kills Colombian Father in Maine During Warrant for a Different Person

An ICE agent shot and killed a 26-year-old Colombian national in Biddeford, Maine on Monday, July 13, in front of the man's wife and 3-year-old daughter. He was not the person named on the warrant agents were executing.

The victim was identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a father from Bucaramanga, Colombia, according to the Portland Press Herald, which cited neighbors and an immigrant advocacy organization. Witnesses told the paper they saw agents pull a man from a car and heard him say "I tried to stop" before he stopped moving.

According to the Department of Homeland Security's own statement, released roughly 12 hours after the shooting, agents were surveilling the "last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal." Agents tried to stop a vehicle leaving that address. The driver tried to flee, DHS said, and an agent opened fire "fearing for public safety." In statements to members of Congress, DHS added that the driver had "weaponized his vehicle toward law enforcement."

No evidence supporting that claim has been made public.

Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, told multiple outlets that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed to him directly that Guerrero was not the subject of the warrant. King said Noem had earlier told him Guerrero had been given an order to leave the country and then "weaponized" his vehicle before agents fired.

The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition says Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. If accurate, that detail complicates DHS's framing of the incident as an enforcement action against someone with no legal standing to remain in the country. It also raises a basic question DHS has not yet answered: how agents ended up in a fatal confrontation with someone who wasn't their target in the first place.

A neighbor who spoke to the Portland Press Herald said he hadn't known Guerrero well but was certain of his innocence, telling the paper, "He was just trying to escape. I just know it." Neither should DHS's account be taken as settled fact given the timeline, the absence of released evidence, and the direct contradiction from a sitting U.S. senator relaying the Secretary's own words.

Resident Mary Hayes described the scene to the New York Times: Guerrero's daughter, in Bluey pajamas, crying in the street while his wife knelt beside her. "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," Hayes said.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Noem told her DHS's inspector general will investigate the shooting alongside the FBI. That's a meaningful step, and it should produce an actual factual record: body camera footage if it exists, agency policy on when officers can fire at a fleeing vehicle, and whether "weaponizing" a car meant genuinely driving at an agent or simply attempting to drive away.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills said state law enforcement is working with federal authorities to determine what happened. After learning Guerrero wasn't the warrant's target, she posted on X that the development "makes this tragedy even more disturbing and infuriating" and said it "underscores the reckless and haphazard manner in which immigration enforcement operations are being conducted in Maine and across the country."

Protests broke out quickly. Biddeford Saco for Racial Justice organized a demonstration Monday, and the Portland Press Herald reported hundreds of protesters gathered in Biddeford while others gathered outside Collins' office chanting "vote her out." Collins is up for reelection this year.

The Colombian embassy said it's providing consular assistance to Guerrero's family and has asked DHS for clarification on the circumstances of his death.

This is the second fatal ICE-involved shooting in a week. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent during a traffic stop in Houston the prior Tuesday. Witnesses and ICE dispute what happened there too, and Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, said Araujo also wasn't the actual target of that warrant.

There's a real argument on the enforcement side worth stating plainly: agents executing federal warrants face genuine risk from fleeing vehicles, and split-second decisions in the field don't always match how they look on video or in a press release afterward. If Guerrero's car was actually driven at an agent, that's a materially different situation than a driver simply trying to get away. That's exactly why an independent inspector general and FBI review matters, and why DHS releasing whatever evidence it has, rather than just a written characterization, is the next necessary step.

What's not in dispute: a man authorized to work in the U.S., according to an immigrant rights group, who wasn't even the person named on the warrant, is dead. His daughter watched it happen. The investigation DHS says is coming needs to answer whether the agency's own account holds up.