Tom Homan, President Donald Trump's border czar and one of his most trusted immigration officials, said the officer involved in the fatal shooting of a Colombian national in Maine is under internal review after court documents revealed he had a long history of serious mental health issues and violent behavior that should have disqualified him from serving as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Asked whether someone with that background should have been hired by ICE, Homan said the officer, identified by different outlets as David Brouillette, should never have passed the agency's vetting process.
"That's all part of the ongoing investigation. Did the vetting process fail? Was that information not available? Did they not know? If that was factual, he would have had an almost impossible time passing vetting," Homan said during an interview with CNN, adding that the case is under review by the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility.
Brouillette, a U.S. Army veteran and former Department of Veterans Affairs police officer, allegedly joined ICE in late 2025 despite court records showing he had been accused of physically and verbally abusing one of his former wives, Lucinda Brouillette, as well as his daughters.
He fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national living in Biddeford, Maine, who, according to Mufalo Chitam, director of the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition, was authorized to work in the United States and had obtained a Social Security number.
According to a Department of Homeland Security statement released after the shooting, Brouillette fired his weapon during a traffic stop after fearing for public safety as Durán Guerrero allegedly attempted to flee in his vehicle. The department said Durán Guerrero was not the target of the enforcement operation but did not explain why the officer believed he posed a public safety threat.
Durán Guerrero's July 13 death was the second fatal shooting involving an ICE officer in the span of a week. On July 7, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national living in Houston, was shot and killed while driving to work.
Homan told CNN that "changes have been made" and that acting ICE Director David Venturella issued a new directive requiring officers to activate body-worn cameras during vehicle stops.
"Right now, on all vehicle stops, there's at least one body camera on site to record the entire event," Homan said.
He added that Venturella "sent an instruction out that he wants at least one body camera on those vehicle stops, so we have everything on video."
Earlier this month, relatives of Brouillette told multiple news outlets that he had struggled with several mental health conditions. His first ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, said she endured "a lot of physical, emotional, and mental health abuse" during their marriage.
Another relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Brouillette was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention-deficit disorder as a child, describing him as "extremely mentally ill." The relative also said he attempted suicide twice at age 12.
So far, neither ICE nor DHS has confirmed that Brouillette was the officer who shot and killed Durán Guerrero. He also has not responded to requests for comment from multiple news outlets.
According to Ashley Brouillette, he told her he is being held in protective custody and believes the shooting of Durán Guerrero was justified.
His oldest daughter, Madison Brouillette, also said he told her during a phone call last week that the shooting was justified.
"I don't think he sees himself as a killer," Madison Brouillette said, as reported by NBC News. "I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing," she added. "All he said was that he did what he had to do. He said that he had to protect himself."
