ICE Targeted Wrong Person in Fatal Maine Shooting

The man Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday was not their intended target, Maine Senator Angus King said.

King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him that ICE had a warrant for a different person. This is similar to the case of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, who was also shot and killed by ICE last week.

“This development makes this tragedy even more disturbing and infuriating, and it underscores the reckless and haphazard manner in which immigration enforcement operations are being conducted in Maine and across the country. This has to end,” Maine Governor Janet Mills said on X Monday evening.

Just like in that case, ICE is claiming that the man, a 26-year-old from Colombia identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero by King’s office, tried to “weaponize” his vehicle by running into or ramming agents. Eyewitnesses dispute that account, and say that agents instead shot at the man’s car. Video shows the Kia sedan riddled with bullet holes, and it was still running afterward. When agents finally stopped the car, the man’s body slumped to the ground as soon as they opened the driver’s side door.

An eyewitness told the Portland Press Herald that the man was “bleeding profusely from the head” when they pulled him out of the car.

“He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop,’” the eyewitness said. Agents surrounded the man on the ground in an intersection. Another witness told the newspaper that a young child, reportedly the victim’s daughter and no older than three years old, was at the scene crying in her Bluey pajamas.

In a statement posted to X Monday evening, the Department of Homeland Security said that “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 statement read. It made no mention of whether the driver was ICE’s intended target. ...