ICE agents ‘handcuffed migrant after shooting him dead’
Thursday, 16 July 2026
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apparently handcuffed a Colombian migrant after he was fatally shot while driving a car in Maine.
Federal agents apparently pulled a man out of the driver’s seat of a white sedan and onto the road before handcuffing him, according to video published by a local media outlet in Maine.
The man, who is believed to be 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, does not move in the video, and it is unclear whether he was alive at the time.
The footage shows the name of a laundromat in the background, which sits at the intersection of Pool St and Hill St in Biddeford, where the fatal shooting took place.
Guerrero is believed to have lived above the laundromat with his wife and three-year-old daughter.
A witness to the incident told ABC News that he watched agents pull the shooting victim from his car and put him on the ground.
“I heard the young man say, ‘I tried to stop.’ I clearly heard him say that,” said Daniel Boucher, adding that he overheard one of the ICE agents allegedly say the driver tried to run him over.
Guerrero was shot and killed by ICE agents on Monday morning as he was driving around his neighbourhood, in a case that has reignited nationwide criticism of the federal agency.
ICE alleged the Colombian national had “attempted to flee the scene” and “weaponised his vehicle towards law enforcement” – a claim the agency has used to justify many other fatal shootings.
A spokesman later admitted Guerrero was not the intended target of the arrest warrant, and that ICE agents were not fitted with body-worn cameras at the time.
An ICE spokesman announced on Tuesday that the force’s activities were temporarily being scaled back in response to major public backlash over the killing, which is thought to mark the 11th fatal shooting by ICE agents under the Trump administration.
It marks the first significant climbdown by ICE since the force was significantly expanded after Donald Trump returned to office as part of the US president’s immigration crackdown.
Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border tsar, confirmed the temporary pause and said the department of homeland security will review the past few fatal shootings by ICE officials.
A Mexican man was shot dead in Texas in a similar case of mistaken identity on July 7. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three, was fatally shot by ICE agents while on his way to work in Houston.
Federal agents were reportedly searching for two Guatemalan nationals when they stopped Araujo, 52, who was shot in the abdomen and died in hospital hours later.
The Trump administration claimed that Araujo “weaponised his vehicle” during the operation, and admitted the ICE agents were not wearing body-worn cameras at the time.
Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in both Biddeford and Houston over the past few days to protest against the most recent ICE killings.
Demonstrators in Maine have turned their ire towards Susan Collins, the state’s long-time Republican senator, who voted in line with her party to approve a US$70b (NZ$117b) ICE funding package in April.
ICE is expected to become a crucial political lightning rod in Maine before the Midterm elections in November, in which Ms Collins is considered one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents vying to retain her seat.
She appeared to distance herself from ICE following the fatal shooting, adding her name to a letter from Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday calling for an urgent investigation into the incident.
An ICE spokesman told The Telegraph: “We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics.”