BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) 鈥� In the minutes after an immigration officer opened fire in a small coastal city in southern Maine, began to unfold: another person had been shot and killed inside a moving vehicle during an immigration enforcement operation.
The Department of Homeland Security later said the officer fired his weapon when the man they were pursuing attempted to flee the scene,
It鈥檚 a narrative that has been repeated again and again since the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown began, with federal officers confronting drivers then saying they opened fire when their vehicles became a danger. That’s despite from policing experts that shooting into moving cars presents a danger of its own and should almost always be avoided.
The Embassy of Colombia identified the man , roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland, as Johan Sebasti谩n Dur谩n Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national. Some friends, neighbors and an advocacy group have spelled his name 鈥淛oan.鈥�
Nine dead in immigration operations
He is the ninth killed during immigration operations since the start of the Trump administration鈥檚 mass deportation campaign. At least four of those deaths involved people in vehicles, including one last week in Houston, a trend so troubling U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday she urged DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin 鈥渢o cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.鈥�
A person familiar with the matter told AP Tuesday that administration officials told immigration officers to . Some policing experts say Immigration and Customs Enforcement should never have conducted traffic stops.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e saying that all these cases are justified because the officers were in danger,鈥� said John Sandweg, who was acting director at ICE, which is part of DHS, during the Obama administration. 鈥淏ut then why the hell are we putting the officer in danger by asking them to execute traffic stops?鈥�
Sandweg, who estimates there have been roughly 18 traffic-stop shootings during the immigration crackdown, noted there are many other places to make arrests, from homes to workplaces.
鈥淚t becomes a much more risky and dangerous situation once you start to pursue someone,鈥� said John Gihon, an immigration lawyer who was an attorney at ICE from 2008 to 2014. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to escalate.鈥�
Gihon said that during his tenure at ICE he regularly trained deportation officers about vehicle stop policies. He said officers were advised they have discretion on whether to pull over someone they are trying to arrest. But if that person refuses to get out of their car and drives away, the guidance is to let them go and track them down another day.
鈥淚f they refuse, you are not pulling them out of the vehicle, you are not putting yourself in front of their car,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his policy is for everyone鈥檚 safety.鈥�
But fatal vehicle stops keep happening during Trump鈥檚 second administration.
There was Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, shot during a late-night traffic stop in South Texas in March 2025, and a mother of three shot and killed in January as she drove her car through the streets of a Minneapolis residential neighborhood amid growing anti-crackdown protests.
Last week, it was a Mexican builder shot and killed as he drove his crew to a worksite in Houston, where he had lived and worked for decades.
Shooting into moving vehicles creates danger for all who are near
Each time, officials insisted the federal officers had fired because they feared they or someone else could be killed by the vehicles.
鈥淢any of you have been told this law enforcement officer wasn鈥檛 hit by a car, wasn鈥檛 being harassed, and murdered an innocent woman,鈥� Vice President JD Vance wrote on X after Good was killed. 鈥淭he reality is that his life was endangered and he fired in self defense.鈥�
That shooting was captured on that contradicted the administration鈥檚 narrative and prompted widespread anger and protests against the officers’ use of deadly force.
Much remains unknown about the others.
Officers were in the Salgado Araujo or the Dur谩n Guerrero killings, despite DHS announcing months ago that it would outfit all officers with cameras.
Geoffrey P. Alpert, an expert on policing at the University of South Carolina, said without video evidence, investigators must rely on witness statements.
鈥淭here鈥檚 certainly a pattern, a practice, a trend that is disturbing,鈥� Alpert said, adding that began prohibiting officers from shooting into moving cars because if the driver is injured or killed, they can lose control, turning the vehicle into 鈥渁n unguided missile,鈥� threatening anyone nearby.
鈥淓very bullet needs to be understood: why was it fired. Every time an officer pulls the trigger, we need to know why,鈥� Alpert said. 鈥淲e talked about that last time, and we鈥檒l talk about that the next time.鈥�
Texas lawmaker notes conflicting descriptions of Houston shooting
Doubts are already swirling about the official story the administration told about the fatal shooting of 52-year-old Salgado Araujo in Houston.
DHS officials said in a statement that the Mexican national ignored commands and was trying to evade arrest, then attempted to ram his car into an officer, who opened fire in self-defense.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia said she visited the facility where the men who were in the vehicle with Salgado Araujo are being held and spoke to two of them, raising 鈥渕any alarming questions鈥� about the administration鈥檚 claims.
鈥淗ere鈥檚 the deal. I visited with them separately, and their stories were consistent, and paint a totally, totally conflicting version of the events,鈥� Garcia said. They said that at no time were any of the ICE officers in front of the vehicle. Instead, they told her the officers were on the passenger side and shot Salgado Araujo, who was driving, through the passenger side window. The window had been open because the vehicle鈥檚 air conditioning was broken.
The DHS story quickly shifted
What exactly led to the deadly shooting in Maine remains unclear. Officers were in Biddeford, surveilling an address for a person with a final order of removal from the country, then tried to stop a vehicle driven by someone coming from that address, DHS said.
Maine U.S. Sen. Angus King said DHS Secretary Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon against officers.
But nearly 12 hours after Dur谩n Guerrero was killed, that story shifted: DHS issued a statement saying the 鈥渧ehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.鈥�
When asked about the contrasting statements, King told CNN an investigation would reveal the truth.
The state鈥檚 Office of the Attorney General announced it would investigate the shooting in coordination with federal authorities, promised transparency and encouraged witnesses to come forward.
On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered near an ICE facility in Scarborough, Maine. They held up a large banner reading 鈥淣o more ICE killings鈥� and signs saying 鈥渟top the murder鈥� and 鈥渆nd this terror.鈥�
鈥淲e need to never see this happen in the streets of Biddeford, Maine, and in this country,鈥� said Democratic state Sen. Mattie Daughtry, said during the protest. 鈥淣ever forget the human toll of what has happened here in Maine, in Minnesota, in Texas.鈥�
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Santana reported from Washington, D.C., Sullivan from Minneapolis and Galofaro from Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press reporters Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, and Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed.
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