By PATRICK WHITTLE, JACK BROOK, REBECCA SANTANA and MICHAEL R. SISAK Associated Press
BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Trump administration officials told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday.
The policy change came after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Maine and a week after one shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
The suspension of vehicle stops allows room for exceptions when executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies, according to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations. Matthew Felling, a spokesperson for Maine Sen. Angus King, said the senator’s office was also told by the Department of Homeland Security that ICE was suspending stops.
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national.
DHS said Monday that an officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the person attempted to flee in the vehicle and the officer fired.
That was a shift from how King earlier described the encounter, when he said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the man who was shot.
DHS, which oversees ICE, didn’t respond to an email seeking clarity on what led to the shooting.
In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”
Petro, who has openly quarreled with U.S. President Donald Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”
The shooting also sparked outrage in Maine, where hundreds of protesters gathered Tuesday outside an ICE detention center in Scarborough, just up the coast between Biddeford and Portland.
“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the crowd.
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.”
Questions surround the shooting
Durán Guerrero’s shooting marked at least the ninth time ICE has used deadly force since Trump began his immigration crackdown.
Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car windshield, but the officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and why ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
“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,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
Maine’s attorney general’s office, which noted that it’s working with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn’t been released and who was placed on leave.
The state’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Democrats seeking to unseat Collins in November sought Tuesday to connect her with ICE’s methods, which have drawn public scrutiny and derision. Collins later said in a statement that although ICE needs to improve, eliminating the agency would make the nation less safe.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is vying for Collins’ seat, called the ICE officers at the shooting “thugs” during a vigil Tuesday evening in Lewiston.
“That agency is broken and we need to go back to a time where the rule of law united all of us regardless of the politics,” she told the crowd.
Video shows the shooting’s aftermath
According to neighbors and public records, Guerrero lived in an apartment about 150 feet (46 meters) from where his car came to a rest outside an apartment building across the street from a pawnshop and laundromat.
Video from a nearby business’ security camera obtained by the AP shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before making several circles. A law enforcement SUV blocks its path and two officers open the driver’s door and drag out a limp body.
It isn’t clear from the video when the shots were fired.
Daniel Boucher said he heard a “pop, pop, pop” and ran to the intersection.
“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”
Boucher said the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked close to him.
“He looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”
Durán Guerrero is survived by his wife and young daughter
Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S.
Neighbors say Durán Guerrero was a friendly and familiar face even though they rarely chatted because he didn’t appear to speak English.
Sadie Dilboy and Cory Poulin, who owns the laundromat near the intersection, said they saw Durán Guerrero all the time.
Claudia Morton, who often waved to Durán Guerrero, was distraught. “The whole world should be crying,” she said.
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Brook reported from New Orleans and Sisak from New York. Associated Press reporters Astrid Suarez in Bogota, Colombia, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.