Migrant Fatally Shot by ICE in Maine Identified as Investigation Unfolds

The 26-year-old migrant who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Maine has been identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a native of Colombia.

Disturbing video from the scene appears to show Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents placing Guerrero in handcuffs as he lay wounded on the ground following a confrontation in Maine.

A neighbor, Nelson Elias, told The Portland Press Herald that he believed Guerrero had not intended to harm anyone.

‘He was just trying to escape. I just know it,’ said Elias, who acknowledged he did not see the shooting happen.

Guerrero was killed early Monday in the coastal city of Biddeford after authorities said he accelerated his vehicle toward agents who were attempting to arrest him.

According to witnesses, Guerrero appeared to drive his white Kia sedan toward a group of ICE agents before one of them fired through the front windshield, striking him in the head.

The fatal encounter reportedly unfolded in front of Guerrero’s family. Witness Cecilia Humiston said his toddler daughter was nearby, wearing Bluey pajamas as the scene played out.

Humiston told the Portland Press Herald that an older woman at the scene shouted at officers, ‘You took her dad, you took her dad.’ She also claimed that one officer, whom she described as ‘rude,’ yelled at the young girl while the child was trying to smell flowers nearby.

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. 

Details of Guerrero’s identity emerged as footage of the shooting swept social media, with officials saying that he had orders to leave the country and was the target of the fateful ICE operation on Monday. 

Immigration advocacy groups said Guerrero had authorization to work in the US and had a social security number. 

Maine Senator Angus King – who originally said there was a warrant out for his arrest – is now saying DHS Secretary Markwayne 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.’ 

It is unclear why Guerrero was being sought by ICE at the time of the incident which led to his death. 

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.’

Footage from the scene showed Guerrero’s white Kia vehicle driving slowly in circles at the intersection, as ICE agents ran alongside it. 

Witness Corel Poulin said security footage from his family’s laundromat showed Guerrero’s car rolling into the intersection after he was shot, implying he was leaning on the accelerator at the time. 

‘I don’t believe he was alive when the car started rolling,’ Poulin said. 

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 rapidly.

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.

In the aftermath of the horror shooting, ICE agents and other law enforcement officers were seen hugging and consoling each other on the street. 

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.

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?’

It comes just days after an ICE agent fatally shot a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston, which sparked mass protests.

Scrutiny on ICE activities was also compounded by the fatal shootings of anti-ICE protesters Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota earlier this year.

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.’