A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine on the morning of July 13, 2026, in an operation targeting someone else — killing a man who had been authorised to work in the United States, had been issued a Social Security number, and had a wife and three-year-old daughter waiting for him at home. The agent who fired the fatal shots wore no body camera. The Maine Attorney General’s Office has opened a state investigation.
The FBI is conducting a parallel federal investigation. Colombia’s president has called the killing a murder. ICE has since announced it is pausing non-urgent vehicle stops. And hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in Biddeford, Portland and cities across the country — making Johan Sebastián Guerrero the most publicly named and politically charged victim of ICE enforcement in Trump’s second term.
What Happened on the Morning of July 13
“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,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “An illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle. 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. He passed away from his injuries.”
The Office of the Maine Attorney General provided a different and more consequential framing: the ICE operation on Monday morning was targeting a man related to a final order to remove him from the country — but the man killed was not that person. A federal officer fatally shot Guerrero, who was allegedly driving “in the direction of the officer” in an attempt to flee.
The man killed was identified by friends, coworkers and advocacy groups as Johan Sebastián Guerrero — also known as Joan Sebastian Guerrero — a 26-year-old Colombian national who had been heading to work when the shooting occurred. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and advocacy group Presente! said he was authorised to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. A neighbour said Guerrero’s young daughter was wearing Bluey pajamas at the time of her father’s death.
Senator Angus King, who was briefed on the incident by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, said: “Body cameras were not on the agents. So we have no video evidence of what occurred in this case.”
The officer involved in Monday’s shooting was a newly sworn-in ICE officer, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. He has been placed on administrative leave.
What Maine’s Governor and Mayor Said
Maine Governor Janet Mills said she was “disturbed” when she was briefed that federal law enforcement was involved, and furious when she learned that Guerrero was not even the intended target. “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,” Mills said. “This has to end.”
Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain said he was mourning for those affected, including “the family that lost a father, lost a partner, and a community member.” He called for a full and thorough, transparent investigation.
Colombia’s Response — “Murder”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded with uncharacteristic directness. He issued a statement on X calling the Biddeford shooting a “murder of a Colombian, a Latin American, at the hands of the US government.” Petro wrote: “They killed him for believing him to be an inferior being without rights, and as a person, he had all the rights conferred on a human being simply for being born, and he was a citizen with rights in the US.” He said he expected to hear from President Donald Trump about the incident.
Colombia’s embassy said it was in contact with American authorities and was providing consular assistance to Guerrero’s family. Mexico’s Senate condemned the incident — coming just days after another fatal ICE shooting in Houston claimed the life of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national with no criminal record.
The Pattern of ICE-Related Deaths in 2026
The shooting of Johan Guerrero is the latest in a documented series. The Maine shooting is at least the ninth death linked to federal immigration enforcement since Trump intensified his immigration crackdown, according to Al Jazeera, although not every death occurred during an ICE operation directly. The Wall Street Journal identified more than a dozen incidents between July 2025 and January 2026 in which federal immigration officers fired at people inside vehicles.
Silvério Villegas González, a 38-year-old Mexican line cook, was shot dead by an immigration agent during a traffic stop outside Chicago after dropping a child at daycare. In March 2025, ICE agents fatally shot 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez, a US citizen, while he was driving his car. The accumulation of cases — across states, involving different nationalities, targeting people with varying legal statuses — has produced a sustained and growing political crisis around ICE’s operational conduct that the Guerrero shooting has now brought to a new level of intensity.
ICE Pauses Non-Urgent Vehicle Stops
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it will pause non-urgent vehicle stops after two deadly shootings in less than a week, Maine US Senator Angus King’s office told NPR. The announcement — made without accompanying detail about how long the pause would last, which categories of stops would be suspended, or what oversight mechanisms would govern the resumption of operations — was described by immigration advocates as insufficient. “ICE must not be allowed to investigate itself or control the public narrative surrounding a death in which its personnel or operations were involved,” the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! said in a joint statement.
The protesters who gathered in Biddeford Monday evening — hundreds of people carrying candles, signs and flowers, singing “Our love is stronger than the fear” as they marched through downtown — represent something that extends beyond the specific facts of the Guerrero case. They reflect a community reckoning with what it means when immigration enforcement is conducted without body cameras, without clear targeting protocols that prevent mistaken identity killings, and without the accountability mechanisms that every other lethal law enforcement operation is supposed to carry.
