US3 min(s) read
Published 12:52 14 Jul 2026 GMT
After a 26-year-old delivery driver was shot dead by ICE agents in front of his toddler, protests have broken out in a small US town, and witnesses have spoken out about the heartbreaking moment.
Joan Sebastian Guerrero was killed by law enforcers outside the home he shared with his three-year-old daughter in Biddeford, Maine.
According to local news outlet Portland Press Herald, a witness said that the now fatherless little girl was wearing pyjamas with the popular kids’ cartoon character Bluey on when her dad was shot dead in front of her.
Images of the crime scene that have circulated on the internet showed bullet holes in the windshield of Guerrero’s sedan and an undercover police car which had collided with it.
Addressing why the incident took place, the state attorney general’s office said in a statement: “Initial statements indicate an Enforcement Removal Operations Officer was conducting an enforcement operation related to a final order of removal when the subject attempted to flee in a vehicle in the direction of the officer and was fatally shot.
“The Enforcement Removal Operations Officer will be placed on leave as is standard protocol in police involved shootings.”
A statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) described Guerrero as an “illegal alien”.
It continued: “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon.”
Since the shooting, which took place at 7AM on Monday, July 13, the attorney-general has called for witnesses of the shooting to come forward.
One witness, neighbour Daniel Boucher, claimed he heard Guerrero speaking in his final moments.
Boucher said: “His face was bloody. His head was bloody. I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.'”
Tragically, Maine Senator Angus King said Guerrero was not the target of an arrest warrant, as the Colombian national had a work permit and a Social Security number.
King told CNN: “They’ve been told they have to arrest 2000 people a day by the White House. That’s a terrible way, an instruction, to give law enforcement.”
Understandably, Maine’s Democrat Governor Janet Mills was furious that Guerrero was not the target of the ICE operation and was killed anyway.
Supporting the protestors that have taken to the streets in Maine, Mills said: “This development makes this tragedy even more disturbing and infuriating, and it underscores the reckless and haphazard manner in which immigration enforcement operations are being conducted in Maine and across the country.
“To those Maine people who are horrified by this tragedy, I am with you, and for those who choose to protest, I urge you to do so peacefully.”
