The man killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maine on Monday has been identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, according to local news outlets.
An immigration agent shot and killed the 26-year-old Colombian man on Monday morning in Biddeford, Maine.
Many of the case’s circumstances remained unclear on Tuesday.
Immigrant rights activists said Guerrero, who was married with a young child, had a social security number and was authorized to work in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, did not respond to a question about his immigration status.
Meanwhile, Colombia’s US embassy said in a statement on Monday that it “deeply regrets the death of a Colombian national in Biddeford, Maine” and had requested “information and clarification” from DHS “regarding the circumstances around this lamentable death”.
One witness told the Portland Press Herald Guerrero’s daughter was still in pajamas with the children’s television show character Bluey when her father was killed.
The DHS has offered little additional information about the killing, saying in a statement on X: “On July 13, 2026, at approximately 7:00 AM ET, ICE was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal. An illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle.”
It was not clear on Tuesday morning whether that was a reference to the man later identified as Guerrero.
The statement continued: “ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon. The driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. He passed away from his injuries.”
The office of the Maine US senator Angus King said the DHS informed him Guerrero was not the subject of the warrant mentioned in the department’s statement.
The Press Herald and Maine’s WMTW news station reported Guerrero’s identity, attributing it to a neighbor and a family friend, respectively. The New York Times also reported Guerrero’s identity, citing King’s office.
A woman who witnessed the shooting told the Bangor Daily News that agents rammed Guerrero’s sedan and then surrounded it with guns drawn. They demanded he exit the car, and when he tried to flee at least one agent opened fire. Another witness told the Press Herald that Guerrero was talking when agents pulled his body from the car and said: “I tried to stop.”
Guerrero was the 11th person fatally shot by federal immigration officials since Donald Trump took office for his second presidency in early 2025.
He is also the fifth of those to be killed by ICE while driving a vehicle.
Guerrero’s killing on Monday also marked the second time in a week that ICE agents killed someone. On 7 July, agents in Houston fatally shot a Mexican man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, as they searched for a different person.
The killings of Salgado and Guerrero were met with protests that called to mind those seen after the shooting deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of immigration agents in Minneapolis in separate cases in January.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
