10 Photos of Joan Sebastian Guerrero: 26-Year-Old Colombian Shot Dead by ICE in Maine Despite Legal Work Authorisation

A young father driving to work was shot dead by a federal immigration officer who was not even looking for him. Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Biddeford, Maine, in the early hours of 13 July 2026.

He held valid work authorisation and a Social Security number, and lived in the city with his partner and their three-year-old daughter. Within a day, the shooting had drawn condemnation from Maine's governor, both US senators, and the Colombian government.

A Delivery Driver Killed on His Way To Work

Guerrero was working in food delivery and also spent mornings cleaning at a veterinary clinic. According to Wikipedia's compiled reporting, the shooting took place at the intersection of Pool Street and Hill Street in Biddeford at roughly 7:17am, after ICE agents rammed his car and then approached with weapons drawn.

His neighbour, Nelson Elias, told CNN he heard officers shouting at Guerrero to park before gunfire erupted, describing hearing around six shots before he went outside and found Guerrero on the ground, with his wife screaming beside him and their daughter nearby. Witnesses said the windscreen of Guerrero's car had at least four bullet holes, and his body was left in the street for hours as investigators worked the scene.

Surveillance footage from a nearby pawn shop, reviewed by the Portland Press Herald, showed the white Kia Guerrero was driving rolling into a crosswalk and circling the intersection at slow speed several times before agents rammed the vehicle, with the fatal shots fired out of camera view.

Conflicting Accounts From Washington

The Department of Homeland Security stayed silent for nearly twelve hours before issuing a statement. It said agents had been 'conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal' when Guerrero left the property by car. DHS said the vehicle 'attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.'

The account shifted within hours. Senator Angus King's office said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin initially told the senator Guerrero was the intended target of the warrant, then called back roughly three hours later with a correction: Guerrero was 'NOT the target of the warrant' agents were executing. King also said Mullin had separately described Guerrero as having 'weaponized' his vehicle, wording DHS did not repeat in its own public statement.

King has said the agents involved had no body cameras, telling reporters he had been assured the devices were 'on order.' DHS later said officers lacked cameras because of 'back-to-back Democrat shutdowns,' adding that roughly half its field offices now had the equipment, with the rest due within sixty days, near-identical wording to a DHS statement issued the previous week after a separate fatal ICE shooting in Houston.

A Community In Mourning

Maine Governor Janet Mills said the shooting 'underscores the reckless and haphazard manner in which immigration enforcement operations are being conducted in Maine and across the country.' Senator Susan Collins called for a 'full and impartial investigation', confirming the FBI was involved.

Guerrero's father, Omar Durán, described his son to Newsweek as 'a person of good values" who had left Colombia to build a better future for his wife and daughter. A local acquaintance, Justin Trudeau, who had helped Guerrero buy a car for his wife months earlier. said he was 'very shocked to find out it was him.'

Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition, said the community was 'grieving,' 'furious,' and would 'not allow his death to be treated as routine or inevitable.' Several hundred protesters gathered in Biddeford the same day, with others demonstrating outside Collins's local office. A GoFundMe organised by advocates had raised close to £23,700 ($30,000) for Guerrero's family within a day.

Investigations And A Wider Pattern

The Colombian Embassy said it had requested "information and clarification" from DHS and would monitor the investigation closely. Maine State Police, the state Attorney General's office and the DHS Inspector General's Boston field office are all involved alongside the FBI.

Guerrero's death came six days after ICE fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, during a Houston traffic stop, and followed the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during immigration operations in Minneapolis. In response to the latest deaths, ICE has reportedly instructed agents to largely suspend vehicle stops until further notice, though the pause does not extend to Customs and Border Protection.

A young family in Biddeford is now left to grieve a man neighbours remember simply as a good father who never stopped asking if they needed anything.