Hundreds of people in Southern Maine gathered in several protests early this week after a man was shot and killed by federal immigration agents on Monday morning in Biddeford — expressing rage, fear and questions about what occurred.
The man, who has been identified by local immigration advocates as a 25-year-old from Colombia named Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, was shot by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while driving near his home in Biddeford at around 7 a.m. on Monday. Durán Guerrero attempted to flee the scene in his vehicle, according to a statement from the Maine Attorney General’s Office, before an officer shot through his windshield. Residents recalled hearing five to seven shots. Video footage obtained by the Associated Press shows agents pulling Durán Guerrero’s body from his vehicle.
Durán Guerrero, who had a wife and a three-year-old daughter, was not the intended target of the warrant that federal immigration officials were carrying out, according to a statement from independent Sen. Angus King. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told King that Durán Guerrero “weaponized” his vehicle in the altercation, according to King. Agents were reportedly not wearing body cameras at the scene.
It was the second fatal shooting by immigration authorities in a week, following the death of a Mexican man in Houston last Tuesday, who was also not the man ICE agents were seeking.
Federal immigration agents have shot and killed 11 people nationwide since January 2025.
The immigration agent who shot Durán Guerrero has been placed on leave, according to a statement released by the Maine Attorney General’s office, which is investigating the shooting. The agent has not been identified, but The Atlantic reported on Tuesday that he was a new recruit who was hired by ICE this year and previously worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs Police. A spokesperson for the Maine State Police said detectives assigned to the Major Crimes Unit South were on the scene on Monday to assist in the AG’s office’s investigation and remain involved.
Maine’s federal delegation issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling for a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.”
ICE reportedly ordered federal agents to stop all non-urgent traffic stops on Tuesday, though the agency did not confirm this.
One resident who lives on the second floor of a building at the intersection of Pool and Hill streets in Biddeford, where the man was shot, told The Maine Monitor he heard at least four or five gunshots at 7:15 a.m. on Monday. When he looked out his window, he saw a body lying on the pavement. He estimated that at least 30 law enforcement officers descended on the scene throughout the morning before leaving in the early afternoon. A dried bloodstain was still visible on the road at 3 p.m.
“What bothers me the most is it was four or five hours that that body, the blood drained down the hill,” the man said. “We don’t know how bad that person was, but you don’t do that to anybody, do you?”
A spokesperson for the Maine State Police did not confirm how long the body was on the ground. The resident, who did not want to be identified by name, said he voted for Donald Trump but he does not like ICE. In the past year and a half, the man said he has lost some faith in Trump’s leadership.
“He’s not God,” the man said.
Protests followed later that day in Biddeford, not far from where the shooting occurred. At the peak of the demonstration, hundreds of protesters crowded around the local office of Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins. Dozens stormed the entryway of the building, chanting “Vote her out!” and pounding on the doors before they were dispersed by police.
The group then gathered at Mechanics Park, where dozens of vehicles drove past honking in support. A handful of counterprotesters briefly stationed themselves across the street, holding signs in support of ICE.
Vigils were held in Biddeford and Portland on Monday night, and a memorial featuring photos of Durán Guerrero has cropped up near the site of the shooting. On Tuesday, several more protests were held around Southern Maine — including outside the ICE detention facility in Scarborough.
The agency is housed in a nondescript gray building in an industrial park. The day after the deadly shooting, hundreds of protestors representing community, labor and faith groups, as well Democratic Senate candidates, marched, sang and chanted in protest.
The shooting comes after increased ICE detainments across the country, with federal officials detaining more than 10,000 people in the last five days of June. And it follows a January enforcement surge in Maine that saw detentions of around 200 people — the majority of whom did not have criminal records.
Biddeford residents said they have seen an uptick in ICE agents in the last several weeks.
Ruben Torres, advocacy and policy manager for the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, said his group began seeing the number of detentions ramp up in May and it now averages around eight people a week. Many of the most recent detentions have happened on work sites, Torres said.
He said he expects a number of immigrants and people of color to miss work in the coming days out of fear for their safety, which could impact their ability to pay rent. During an emergency meeting Monday, the coalition and its partners strategized on how to help people pay for housing if they lose income.
Most of the people detained in Maine and tracked by the coalition at lighthouseme.org have been people of color, Torres said. That has contributed to a climate of fear among non-white residents, not just immigrants, he said.
“They just took a brown man exiting a home in Biddeford, Maine, to mean, ‘Oh, that’s an illegal immigrant,’” Torres said. “As a brown man who lives in Maine, that’s worrying, because I don’t know what could happen when I leave my house. What happens if somebody thinks I’m an illegal immigrant just because I’m brown and leaving my apartment?”
At the protests in Biddeford and Scarborough, locals expressed grief, anger and fear. Here are some of their reactions:
Justin Maynard and Brandhi Manzer, Biddeford residents
Maynard and Manzer, who attended the Biddeford protest on Monday, said they lived near Durán Guerrero but did not know him personally. Maynard said he witnessed the shooting from just down the street.
“The car was on the side of the road, the truck pulled up, they jumped out, they told the guy not to move, he drove off with the car, and they opened fire on him,” Maynard said.
The two then heard five to seven gunshots.
“I’m never going to forget that,” Maynard said.
Manzer described Biddeford as a close-knit community, and said she often saw Durán Guerrero driving by with music playing.
“One of our neighbors was killed for no reason,” Manzer said. “They belong here with us, with their family.”
Lindsay Andrews, Arundel resident
As a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Andrews said her home community has begun to feel intimidating.
“I know I’m not the target audience for these raids, but it’s a scary world to be living in when I can’t feel safe walking around my hometown,” Andrews said. “Even right now protesting I don’t feel safe.”
Nate Andrews, Biddeford resident
Andrews, who lives near the high school in Biddeford, said he has noticed federal immigration agents park nearby in an apparent attempt to detain parents who are picking up their children. He directed frustration toward Collins, condemning her support of a bill funding ICE and calling on her to resign.
“Her just willingness to choose her own political career over what’s right is disgusting,” Andrews said.
Lexi Jaynes, Scarborough resident
Jaynes said she has a close friend who lives in Biddeford, and was scared for his life when she heard the news of the shooting.
“My best friend who is brown lives here, and I didn’t hear from him this morning,” Jaynes said in Mechanics Park on Monday. “I was terrified that it was him, and I feel so sorry for the parents of that person.”
Jaynes also condemned the handful of counterprotesters, who stood across the street from the park. One held a sign that read “We love ICE.” Vehicles driving past the protest also often hurled insults or pro-Trump sentiments at the protesters, and Jaynes said someone yelled “I love ICE” at her while she walked to the protest.
“Even if you do think ICE is good, it’s so distasteful to do this after someone was just executed in the street,” Jaynes said.
India Hyde, Portland resident
Hyde, who attended the protest with Grimes, volunteers at Portland Adult Education, and said that a fear of increasing ICE activity has been visible in the city’s immigrant community since late May.
“Its hard to be in these educational environments and see people so scared in a place of learning,” Hyde said.
Christopher Andersen, Poland resident
Andersen, a commercial fisherman who has worked on the Portland waterfront for 30 years, first heard about the shooting on the news. He immediately closed his shop down and headed to Biddeford to join the protest. Andersen said has seen a “ridiculous” amount of ICE activity in Lewiston, and has more recently observed federal immigration enforcement near Biddeford.
“I’ve seen them deporting a lot of people,” Andersen said. “Americans are sick of seeing this.”
Makai Moody-Broen, Portland resident
Moody-Broen also left work hurriedly after hearing the news of the shooting.
“I didn’t want to sit in my office and think about it, so I came out here,” he said at the Biddeford protest on Monday.
Moody-Broen said he observed a surge of ICE detentions this winter in the area, and has seen agents “pulling people out of their cars.”
Moody-Broen also has close friends in Biddeford, he said. He said he was struck by Durán Guerrero’s alleged last words, when he reportedly told officials, “I tried to stop.”
“I just can’t really stop thinking about that,” Moody-Broen said.
Alex Caradonna, Scarborough resident
Caradonna first heard about the shooting on social media, when he opened his phone and “couldn’t avoid it,” he said. Caradonna previously lived in Biddeford for five years, near where the shooting took place.
“They keep killing people, and they aren’t going to stop until we stop them,” Caradonna said.
“Anyone should be upset about this. It shouldn’t be political to be upset that a citizen or noncitizen was killed,” he added.
Erin Evans, Portland resident
Evans, 56, an accountant from Portland, said that ICE was “terrorizing the entire country.”
Evans said she had believed that “voting was enough” before being spurred to protest and organize by the now-defunct Graham Platner Senate campaign. She now hopes that Nirav Shah can clinch the Democratic Senate nomination and defeat Susan Collins.
Evans said she voted for Collins twice in the past and once “thought Susan Collins was fine,” she said. But not anymore. “Now, I’m gonna work 24/7 until November 6 to drag her out of office.”
“She is so complicit with Donald Trump’s policies,” she said. “She does not represent Maine.”
Samuel Hernandez, tourist
Hernandez, a 40-year-old physician who lives in Brooklyn, was traveling through Maine on vacation when he saw news of the shooting on Monday.
“I’m a Hispanic person, a brown man, driving a car, so it’s a little bit frightening,” he said. “I don’t believe in masked and unidentifiable police forces. So I just came here to show my support.”
Christina Leddy, Cape Elizabeth resident
Leddy, 47, stood in the chanting crowd outside the Scarborough facility and said it “breaks her heart,” that “we have an economy so terrible that $50,000 will convince someone to shoot their fellow citizens and put children in cages.”
“We’re exhausted, and I know that’s part of the plan to wear us out,” said Leddy, who works in public health. “So that’s why we’re here today, to show them we’re not done yet. They can push and they can push, but we can push back.”
Chris Hourclé, Gorham resident
Hourclé, 50, said elected officials were not doing their jobs holding ICE accountable. He blamed Susan Collins in particular.
“This is a direct result of her votes,” he said. “They seem to be accountable to no one.”
Carole Ferolito, Scarborough resident
“This isn’t what the American dream is,” said Ferolito at the Tuesday morning protest in Scarborough. She said ICE’s enforcement tactics appeared to be escalating.
“People who are innocent are just being attacked violently with no rhyme or reason,” Ferolito said. “People shouldn’t be locked up for wanting to be in this country to work and exist.”
Kellie Hess, Wayne resident
Hess, 67, didn’t learn about the shooting until she saw her newsfeed on Tuesday morning. She attended the Scarborough protest and said she was feeling “anger and total grief.” This shooting shouldn’t feel different than that of Renée Good or Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, she said, but the proximity has made her feel a stronger drive to act.
“We don’t seem to be able to make a course correction, and it seems so obvious that it’s needed,” Hess said. “People are dying needlessly.”
This story was updated July 15 to correct the spelling of Alex Caradonna’s last name and to identify the individual shot and killed by federal agents as Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. The story was also updated July 21 to correct the age of Johan, he was 25.
