Congresswoman says ICE missed intended target in Maine shooting
Rep. Chellie Pingree said ICE agents were aiming at a roommate, not the Colombian man killed in a July shooting, and noted the victim had no final removal order.
An ICE officer shot and killed 25-year-old Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero near his Biddeford, Maine home on July 13 while conducting surveillance on a separate individual. Rep. Chellie Pingree told a Maine hearing that the agency’s intended target was Durán Guerrero’s roommate, the car’s owner, and that the victim was not subject to a final removal order but had a pending asylum case and a valid work permit.
"Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero should be alive today," Pingree said, adding that many questions about the incident remain unanswered.
The Department of Homeland Security, in a statement, maintained its earlier assessment that ICE was monitoring the last known address of an illegal alien with a final removal order. A DHS spokesperson said the agency would not disclose sensitive law-enforcement methods and that no statement had identified either Durán Guerrero or his roommate as the operation’s target.
The shooting remains under investigation by the Maine Attorney General’s Office. At the hearing, several Democratic lawmakers discussed ICE’s use of deadly force in the state, while DHS reiterated that the officer fired because the suspect attempted to flee and posed a public safety risk.