Migrant shot and killed by ICE in Maine named as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26
The 26-year-old migrant fatally shot by ICE in Maine has been identified as Colombia native Joan Sebastian Guerrero.
Horrifying footage showed the moment Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents handcuffed a dying Guerrero on the ground after shooting him during a confrontation.
In a statement ICE, referred to Guerrero as an ‘illegal alien‘ who ‘attempted to flee the scene’ of a traffic stop when a federal agent fired.
ICE agents were in the are 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 ICE spokesperson added in a statement.
The shooting is going 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,’ they said.
One of Guerrero’s neighbors, Nelson Elias, told The Portland Press Herald he was convinced of Guerrero’s innocence.
Horrifying footage has revealed the moment Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents handcuffed a dying migrant on the ground after shooting him during a confrontation in Maine on Monday morning
An ICE agent fired a barrage of shots through the front windshield of the driver, who was hit in the head and died in front of his family, witnesses said
‘He was just trying to escape. I just know it,’ said Elias, who did not witness the shooting.
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.
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.
Authorities said the driver was a 26-year-old migrant from Colombia, who had a work authorization permit in the US and a Social Security Number, but he also had a warrant out for his arrest at the time of the shooting and was the target of the ICE operation on Monday
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.
Angus King – who originally said there was a warrant out for his 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.’
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.
New footage shows a Kia being driven around in circles around the time its owner was shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Biddeford, Maine on Monday
‘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 unfolded at an intersection early on Monday morning in the coastal town of Biddeford, Maine
ICE agents and police seen at the scene of the shooting on Monday, as the driver lay dead on the sidewalk after being shot in the head
A witness said he saw the driver ‘trying to hit the ICE officer’, moments before hearing an agent fire roughly four shots
Two women hug each other near the scene of the deadly shooting
Investigators at the scene on Monday
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.’
