An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer connected to the fatal shooting of a person in Maine this week as soon as informed a courtroom that he suffered lingering cognitive points after sustaining a severe head damage.
Those issues, which David Brouillette said resulted from a metal I-beam falling on his head, had been so debilitating that he couldn’t full a firefighting coaching course and was nonetheless feeling results years later.
The lawsuit Brouillette filed in late 2023 in opposition to the Maine Community College System, which administered the coaching the place he was earlier injured, said he was nonetheless “significantly impaired in his activities and in his daily living.” The go well with alleged his post-concussive accidents “impaired his cognitive functioning and impaired his memory.”
Just over two years later, Brouillette was working as an ICE officer.
Brouillette, 37, was among the many officers on the scene in Biddeford, Maine, on Monday after a fatal ICE shooting, in accordance to two of his ex-wives who reviewed photographs of the incident.
NCS has not independently confirmed whether or not Brouillette fatally shot 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero. Federal officers haven’t publicly recognized who shot Durán Guerrero. The Department of Homeland Security said the officer used lethal power as a result of he was “fearing for public safety.”
One of Brouillette’s ex-wives and one in all his daughters informed NCS that he contacted them days after the shooting and said that he opened hearth. Both said he informed them he thought the shooting was justified. Federal sources individually confirmed to NCS that he is an ICE officer.
The courtroom filings about Brouillette’s head damage reviewed by NCS elevate contemporary questions on ICE’s vetting and coaching practices.
Durán Guerrero’s killing, the second time an ICE officer fatally shot an immigrant behind the wheel of a automobile in lower than every week, and the fourth killing this year by federal immigration authorities, has sparked protests and calls for for a clear investigation.
Ashley Brouillette, one in all his ex-wives, informed NCS that he informed her on a Facebook name days after the incident that he was the officer who shot Durán Guerrero. She additionally recognized him as one of many officers seen on video on the scene after the shooting.
One of Brouillette’s daughters additionally said he informed her he was the shooter.
A second ex-wife, Lucinda Brouillette, recognized him as being on the scene after reviewing a picture of two officers who had been there shortly after Durán Guerrero was killed.
ICE officer connected to fatal Maine shooting suffered 2021 head damage
Brouillette didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
Brouillette’s two ex-wives have additionally accused him of abuse, in accordance to interviews and courtroom paperwork. In 2009, a child-protective caseworker wrote in a letter that Ashley Brouillette “ended her marriage to David and now admits that he was verbally and physically abusive to her.” That identical 12 months, an legal professional for Ashley Brouillette wrote, “There is a history of allegations of domestic violence between the parties.”
In 2019, Brouillette’s second ex-wife, Lucinda Brouillette, filed a “complaint for protection from abuse” in opposition to him, stating that he had a historical past of violence. In paperwork, she described incidents in which she said he “pushed” previous her, threatened her brother that he would “put him in the hospital” and “bumped” her with his chest.
A decide issued an order that month for David Brouillette to quickly relinquish any firearms.
An order on the case issued in 2020 didn’t embody a discovering of abuse however prohibited David Brouillette from having contact with his second ex-wife with a number of exceptions. In 2021, Lucinda Brouillette alleged in courtroom papers that he had turn out to be “aggressive” with his daughter, together with by dumping a plate of spaghetti in her hair and tackling her. A decide dismissed that case and not using a discovering of abuse.
David Brouillette wrote in one other courtroom submitting that his second ex-wife made “accusations against me in retaliation for anger.”
Ashley Brouillette and Lucinda Brouillette every have a daughter with David Brouillette.
“Honestly, I’m in a state of shock,” Ashley Brouillette informed NCS on Wednesday. “I feel really sad, and I feel sad for that man’s family that died. I feel sad for his children, but I also feel bad for my daughter and her little sister because that’s their father.”
Lucinda Brouillette informed NCS in a textual content message that she “experienced a persistent pattern of abuse, intimidation, manipulation, fear, and control” all through and after her marriage. “The emotional, psychological, and physical scars of those experiences have remained with me long after the marriage ended,” she said.
In courtroom data, he denied and disputed abuse allegations. A search of a Maine legal data database confirmed no proof that he has ever been charged with or convicted of a criminal offense.
David Brouillette appeared to attempt his hand at quite a lot of jobs earlier than becoming a member of ICE.
The Army confirmed Brouillette served as a soldier in each the Maine National Guard and the common military from 2007 to 2015 and deployed to Afghanistan.
He served as a state correctional officer in 2015, and as a police officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, in accordance to data. The VA didn’t reply to requests for remark. He additionally labored briefly in actual property round 2025.
In 2021, Brouillette pursued a certification to turn out to be an expert firefighter by way of a program at Southern Maine Community College, which required each tutorial lessons and discipline workout routines, in accordance to courtroom paperwork.
During coaching on December 3, 2021, Brouillette was injured whereas unloading a trailer, in accordance to his lawsuit, when a heavy I-beam fell on him, inflicting a “serious laceration to his head” and a concussion. Lasting accidents, he said, included “impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity.”
He was unable to full this system, in accordance to the 2023 go well with.
The faculty, in courtroom paperwork, said Brouillette and different college students had “failed” to correctly stabilize the transport earlier than unloading gear. The case later settled, a school spokesperson informed NCS.
Ashley Brouillete said her ex-husband informed her in December that he had joined ICE.
Last 12 months, as ICE was ramping up its hiring spree, the company particularly sought army veterans and present and former law enforcement officials.
Law enforcement officers had been in particularly excessive demand, in accordance to sources acquainted with the hiring course of, as a result of they could possibly be pushed by way of coaching sooner. One former Homeland Security official said the objective was for the overwhelming majority of latest hires to be regulation enforcement officers.
“We were operating under the assumption that they’d be familiar with basic law enforcement principles and equipment,” the previous official said.
Applicants who fell underneath that class would typically take a web-based course after which get coaching at their designated places of work — all of which may occur in a span of weeks or much less.
It’s unclear how a lot extra vetting was finished for many who had earlier regulation enforcement expertise. NCS previously reported that the speedy hiring push had resulted in minimal background checks, fueling considerations amongst former and present ICE officers on the time. DHS defended its coaching insurance policies.
It is unclear precisely how a lot or what kind of coaching Brouillette acquired from ICE. DHS said not too long ago it has instituted extra coaching, together with for crowd management, high-risk car stops and medical coaching, plus a live-fire cowl course.
Asked by NCS if the officers concerned within the current shootings in Houston and Biddeford had been on administrative depart, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a information convention Friday, “When there’s a shooting involved, standard practice is that individual goes on administrative leave while the investigation is going through.”
Federal investigations into the Maine shooting are ongoing.
NCS’s Gabe Cohen, Bob Crowley, Yahya Abou-Ghazala and Thomas Bordeaux contributed to this report.