The man killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maine on Monday has been identified as Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
An immigration agent shot and killed the 26-year-old Colombian man on Monday morning in Biddeford, Maine, after reportedly ramming into his car.
By Tuesday, ICE had reportedly ordered its agents to stop conducting most vehicle stops for now, according to a source at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Many of the case’s circumstances remained unclear.
Immigrant rights activists said Durán Guerrero, who was married and had a young child, had a social security number and was authorized to work in the United States. Asked about his immigration status, DHS, which oversees ICE, issued a statement that referred to Durán Guerrero as “a Colombian national” but did not explicitly address his immigration status.
“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. An illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle.”
The statement continued: “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. The driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted.
“He was identified as Colombian national Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero. He passed away from his injuries.”
The agency spelled Durán Guerrero’s first name differently from various media outlets that reported his identity based on people close to him. A Facebook page that seemed to be associated with Durán Guerrero also spelled his first name “Joan”.
The Press Herald and Maine’s WMTW news station first reported Durán Guerrero’s identity, attributing it to a neighbor and a family friend, respectively. The New York Times also reported Durán Guerrero’s identity, citing the office of Angus King, a Maine US senator.
Local police and the FBI responded to the scene of Durán Guerrero’s killing, the DHS statement said. The department said its office of inspector general – an internal watchdog – would investigate the case because it resulted in a firearms “discharge”.
Colombia’s US embassy said in a statement on Monday that it “deeply regrets the death of a Colombian national in Biddeford, Maine” and had requested “information and clarification” from DHS “regarding the circumstances around this lamentable death”.
Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s president, issued a statement on X on Tuesday afternoon, writing in Spanish: “What happened in Maine is the assassination of a Colombian, a Latin American, at the hands of the US government. They killed him because they thought he was inferior and without rights, and as a person, he had all the rights that every human being is given just for being born, and he was a citizen with rights in the US. I await on the exterior Colombian services in the US to take quick judicial and human action so that the assassins can pay for their homicide. I hope President Donald Trump he can deliver a message to Colombia about what happened.
“Johan Sebastián Durán rest in peace, victim of the government due to the persecution and exclusion against a population for ethnic and cultural reasons, which has been prohibited since the time of the Nuremberg trials around the world.”
One witness told the Portland Press Herald that Durán Guerrero’s daughter was still in pajamas watching the children’s television show character Bluey when her father was killed.
King’s office said the DHS informed him Durán Guerrero was not the subject of the warrant mentioned in the department’s statement.
A woman who witnessed the shooting told the Bangor Daily News that agents rammed Durán Guerrero’s sedan and then surrounded it with guns drawn. They demanded he exit the car, and when he tried to flee at least one agent opened fire. Another witness told the Press Herald that Durán Guerrero was talking when agents pulled his body from the car and said: “I tried to stop.”
Durán Guerrero is the 11th person to be fatally shot by federal immigration officials since Donald Trump took office for his second presidency in early 2025.
He is also the fifth of those to be killed by ICE while driving a vehicle.
Durán Guerrero’s killing on Monday also marked the second time in a week that ICE agents killed someone. On 7 July, agents in Houston fatally shot a Mexican man, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, as they searched for a different person.
The killings of Salgado and Durán Guerrero were met with protests that called to mind those seen after the shooting deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of immigration agents in Minneapolis in separate cases in January.
José Olivares contributed reporting
