ICE Agent Kills Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine; Trump Overrides Pause on ICE Traffic Stops

What happened

On the morning of Monday, July 13, 2026, a federal immigration agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero on Pool Street in Biddeford, Maine. He was originally from Colombia; the Portland Press Herald gives his age as 26 and CBS News as 25. His wife and young daughter were at the scene. A neighbour, Nelson Elias, identified him and described seeing his wife crying while holding their daughter's hand. "He was just trying to escape. I just know it," Elias said (Portland Press Herald).

According to DHS, as reported by CBS News, Durán Guerrero was not the target of the operation: ICE tried to stop his car at around 7 a.m. while "conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal," and he was shot when he "attempted to flee the scene." DHS said: "Fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon." Sen. Angus King said Durán Guerrero had previously been given an order to leave the country. His father told CBS News partner Noticias Caracol that his son had "left the country to build a future for his family," leaving a wife and a 3-year-old daughter. The Maine Attorney General's office, which took the investigation, said he "allegedly tried to flee in the officer's direction." The agent was placed on leave. DHS and ICE did not confirm his identity or answer questions at the time (Portland Press Herald).

It was the second fatal shooting during an ICE vehicle stop in a week. On July 7, officers searching for someone else had stopped Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and shot him; DHS said he ignored commands and tried to ram an officer (CBS News; see the Salgado Araujo entry).

After the two killings, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations was instructed to suspend most vehicle stops nationwide, except for serious criminal targets. On Wednesday, July 15, Trump posted on Truth Social that "we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!" and told ICE to be "judicious, fair and smart." The White House confirmed the post overturned the DHS memo issued the day before, and ICE sources said officers could resume vehicle stops (CBS News). Sen. Angus King called for "a full, fair, open, transparent investigation of this, not strictly run by the feds" (CBS News).

Legal analysis

Arbitrary deprivation of life (ICCPR Art. 6) and excessive force (Fourth Amendment).

• Lethal force by a state agent: met.
• Necessity and proportionality: reasonable basis to question; not established. Flight alone does not justify lethal force. The official account, that he "allegedly tried to flee in the officer's direction," implies a vehicle threat but gives no detail. No video or official findings appear in the sources fetched.
• Duty to investigate: pending. A state attorney general's investigation is under way.

Policy link. The killing is one of two in a week arising from ICE vehicle stops. DHS itself treated those stops as a risk serious enough to suspend; the President overrode that safety measure within a day. That decision does not make the President responsible for the shooting, but it keeps in force the enforcement tactic his own department had just paused after two deaths.

Not an international crime. No armed conflict, and no showing that this killing formed part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population (Rome Statute Art. 7).

Strongest defence argument. If Durán Guerrero drove toward the officer, the officer may have perceived an imminent threat to life, and the facts remain under investigation by an independent state authority. That is why this entry rests at a reasonable basis to believe, not more. The defence does not address the decision to restore the vehicle-stop tactic immediately after it had been paused for safety.

Why this grade

Severe. The rubric's severe grade covers "use of excessive force by state agents" causing concrete harm. A man who was not the target of the operation was killed, and the President reversed a safety pause adopted in response. The evidence on the shooting itself is thin and disputed, so the entry is not graded higher. No international crime is plausibly in play, so no evidence classification is assigned.