One of the ex-wives of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who killed a Colombian man in Biddeford this week sought a protection order against him.
The woman, who hasn’t been publicly identified, also asked a Kennebec County judge to grant her sole custody of the child she had with 37-year-old David Brouillette, according to the Portland Press Herald.
In her motion, she said that sole custody was necessary to ensure the “safety and wellbeing” of their child after Monday morning’s deadly shooting.
The judge, however, denied her request Thursday, calling her allegations “insufficient,” but ordered her and Brouillette to return to court in 21 days, unless she abandons the request, the Press Herald reported.
Brouillette and the woman divorced in 2019, but have been engaged in a messy legal fight over child support that stretched into this year, according to the Portland newspaper
Brouillette, who was hired this year by ICE, allegedly shot and killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero as he left for work about 7 a.m. Monday at the intersection of Pool and Hill streets, where the Colombian immigrant encountered Brouillette and other agents with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
Brouillette, whose first ex-wife Ashley Brouillette, who divorced him in 2010, and family identified him as the alleged shooter and spoke with the media about his history of violent behavior, fired four or five bullets, according to witness testimony and video and audio recordings, when Duran Guerrero allegedly tried to flee.
The ICE agents weren’t equipped with body cameras, for which Congress approved $20 million in funding this year, on top of more than $73 billion appropriated to the agency under the so-called Big Beautiful Bill in 2025, meaning there’s apparently no direct video evidence of what happened between Duran Guerrero and them in the moments before the shooting.
An ICE spokesperson claimed this week that Duran Guerrero was in the country illegally and had a final removal order against him. But Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who previously suggested Duran Guerrero had “weaponized” his white Kia, told U.S. Sen. Angus King that Duran Guerrero wasn’t actually the target of the agents’ administrative warrant.
Benjamin Gideon, a prominent and politically connected lawyer representing Duran Guerrero’s family, said during a Thursday press conference that the 25-year-old was in the United States legally. Family and friends who spoke with the Washington Post said Duran Guerrero came here in 2023 to build a better future for his then-infant daughter.
In the aftermath of Duran Guerrero’s death, ICE has temporarily halted most traffic stops. The death of Duran 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, putting him at odds with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who faces a heated campaign for reelection in November and pressed Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, to stop “non-urgent” traffic stops.
Several federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are participating in the investigation, which the Colombian embassy said it will be monitoring as it stays in touch with Duran Guerrero’s family here. On Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting murder, saying that Duran Guerrero was “killed because he was deemed an inferior being devoid of rights.”
In a Tuesday letter to Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, Maine’s congressional delegation called for him to “prioritize” a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation” into Duran Guerrero’s death.
This may be 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.”