BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Hundreds of people protested in Maine on Tuesday over the killing of a Colombian man by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, after federal officials appeared to shift their narrative about the deadly encounter.
The Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed the man Monday in Biddeford while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and had a final order of removal from the country.
The department said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone coming from the home, the vehicle attempted to flee and the officer fired his weapon.
That was a shift from how Maine Sen. Angus King described the encounter hours earlier when he said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the man who was shot.
The driver was Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, the Colombian Embassy told The Associated Press in a statement.
Protesters gathered Tuesday outside of an ICE detention center in Scarborough, just up the coast from Biddeford.
“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the gathering, including some who held signs reading "Stop the murder” and “End this terror.”
A small group of counter-protestors briefly disrupted the rally. Protesters drowned out their voices with whistles.
Questions surround the shooting
Durán Guerrero's shooting marked the second time in a week that ICE used deadly force and at least the ninth death since President Donald Trump began his immigration crackdown.
The officers involved in shooting in Biddeford, which is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland, didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions about what transpired. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and how ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
DHS, which oversees ICE, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking clarity on what led to the shooting.
Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Photos showed bullet holes in the car’s windshield.
The Maine attorney general’s office, which is also investigating, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn't been released and who was placed on leave.
Video shows the shooting's aftermath
Video from a nearby business' security camera that was obtained by the AP shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before making several circles. A law enforcement SUV blocked its path and two officers opened the driver’s door and dragged out a limp body.
It isn't clear from the video when the shots were fired.
Daniel Boucher, who lives nearby, said he looked out his third-floor window after hearing a “pop, pop, pop” sound before seeing the driver.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
At one point, Boucher said, the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked close to him.
“I was emotional and I just let him have it, and he looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
Durán Guerrero is survived by his wife and young daughter
Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S.
Mary Hayes, who lives close to the scene, said the man lived nearby with his wife and young daughter.
“I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body on the ground,” Hayes told the AP as she held a sign saying “No ICE Stop ICE.”
Last week in Houston, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo after federal authorities driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was driving to a construction job site.
The two shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda. Over five days at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.
The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, arrests are surging. The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
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Brook reported from New Orleans and Sisak from New York. Associated Press reporters Rebecca Santana in Washington and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
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