The Colombian immigrant killed Monday morning during an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Biddeford came to the United States to build a better future for his young daughter.
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26, came to the U.S. in September 2023 when his daughter was just months old, Cristian Joya, a childhood friend, told the Washington Post.
“His dream was to give his daughter a better future. It was the American Dream. And now it’s no longer a dream,” Joya told the Post.
An ICE agent shot and killed Guerrero about 7 a.m. at the intersection of Pool and Hill streets, where he encountered two or three officers with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
Four or five shots were fired when the Colombian allegedly tried to flee from agents, who haven’t been publicly identified but have been placed on administrative leave. The agent believed to have fired the fatal shots was hired by ICE this year, according to The Atlantic magazine. The agent has worked in federal law enforcement since 2017, including with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs police force. The Bangor Daily News hasn’t independently confirmed the agent’s identity.
In a Monday evening statement, an ICE spokesperson claimed that Guerrero was in the country illegally and had a final removal order against him. But Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who previously suggested Guerrero had “weaponized” his white Kia, told U.S. Sen. Angus King King that Guerrero wasn’t actually the target of the agents’ administrative warrant.
Two immigrant advocacy groups here, Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine, said in a joint statement that Guerrero, who leaves behind a wife and daughter, who just turned 3, had authorization to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number.
The ICE agents weren’t equipped with body cameras, for which Congress approved $20 million in funding this year, meaning there’s apparently no direct video evidence of what happened between Guerrero and them in the moments before the shooting.
Guerrero spent mornings cleaning a veterinarian’s office and afternoons delivering food, his friends told the Post. Before coming here, Guerrero worked at a window business in Colombia and spent a stint in the military.
Monday was a national holiday in Colombia, and his parents’ neighbors in Bucaramanga awoke that morning to his mother’s screams after learning of her son’s death, according to the Post, which spoke with his family and their neighbors there.
Guerrero’s parents flew to the capital of Bogotá later that day to meet with U.S. Embassy staff to arrange for their son’s return to his homeland, his sister, 32-year-old Angie Durán Guerrero, told the Post.
THE POLITICAL BACKLASH
The Colombian embassy said it will be monitoring the investigation into Guerrero’s death as it stays in touch with his family in Maine. On Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting murder, saying that Guerrero was “killed because he was deemed an inferior being devoid of rights.”
In the aftermath of Guerrero’s death, ICE has temporarily halted most traffic stops. The death of Guerrero, and that of 52-year-old construction worker Lorenzo Araujo in Texas last week, happened during a traffic stop. On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on ICE to reverse course on the policy shift.
Maine’s congressional delegation are pushing Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to “prioritize” a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation” into Guerrero’s death, while Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, called on U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree to rein in ICE or abolish it.
This is at least the 11th fatal shooting involving ICE agents since Trump’s second inauguration. That doesn’t include deaths of those in the agency’s custody. As of July 6, at least 21 people have died in immigration detention centers in 2026, on top of 33 who died last year, according to the National Immigration Project.
Earlier this year, Maine became the latest state to see a surge in ICE agents as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Catch of the Day. That surge was cut short amid a nationwide pushback against the agency’s tactics following the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis.
Of the nearly 200 detained in Maine during the January ICE surge, only 11 had criminal convictions, undercutting the Trump administration’s claim that it was targeting the “worst of the worst.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly noted Guerrero’s age. He was 25 when he was fatally shot.