A easy memorial of flowers and candles has gone up close to the spot on a Maine road the place Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero’s associate fell to her knees and his 3-year-old daughter cried after he was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Monday.
Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old meals supply driver from Colombia, died Monday in the historic Atlantic coast metropolis of Biddeford, the place neighbors remembered him as an excellent man and onerous employee. The Colombian Embassy initially reported his age as 26.
“Immigrants make Biddeford great,” learn an indication on the makeshift memorial.
It was the second fatal shooting by a federal officer inside per week, main Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make a serious reversal and direct officers to largely droop car stops till additional discover, based on a supply conversant in the steering.
An ICE officer fired his weapon “fearing for public safety” as Durán Guerrero, in a car, “attempted to flee the scene,” the Department of Homeland Security stated in its first official assertion practically 12 hours after the capturing. He was not the target of the enforcement operation.
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To neighbors in Biddeford, nonetheless, Durán Guerrero was not seen as a public security risk. Instead, the younger man who lived along with his associate and daughter was described by neighbors as quiet and reserved.
“We just ask for justice for his family. It was hard to see his wife sitting there just crying and screaming,” neighbor Nelson Elias stated.
“I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again,” Mary Hayes, who lives close to the intersection the place the capturing occurred, informed The Associated Press.
Durán Guerrero’s associate, Karolina Rojas, the mom of their youngster, posted a photograph tribute to him Monday on social media, writing in Spanish there are not any phrases for her ache, she has many excellent questions and her “soul aches.”
On one of many photographs displaying the couple, Rojas wrote, “Give me great strength, my love — I beg you. Stay with me every step of the way; Don’t leave us alone, I beg you.”
Durán Guerrero had authorization to work in the United States and had obtained a Social Security quantity, based on Mufalo Chitam, director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. Federal officers haven’t confirmed these particulars.
About 7 a.m. on Monday, Durán Guerrero left his his dwelling on his method to work, based on a neighbor. Video surveillance obtained by The Associated Press seems to indicate the automobile with him inside because it’s being stopped. Once the car has been stopped, brokers might be seen pulling the driving force from the car and laying the physique on the bottom.
Agents weren’t outfitted with body cameras, so there isn’t any firsthand video of what occurred. The Department of Homeland Security pledged earlier this yr to expand its physique digital camera program, however a gradual rollout since then means the tools hasn’t reached all brokers, together with these concerned in the capturing in Maine.
Durán Guerrero was from town of Bucaramanga, in north central Colombia.
He had emigrated to the United States looking for a greater life for his household, his father informed Colombian radio station Blu Radio. He stated his son had additionally labored at a veterinary clinic.
“He was a good person … raised with values,” Omar Durán stated.
The Colombian authorities, via its embassy in Washington, demanded a “thorough and immediate” investigation and a clarification from the Department of Homeland Security about the circumstances of his demise. His household in Colombia, in the meantime, has begun the method to repatriate his physique.
DHS, in a press release, didn’t present extra particulars about why the agent believed the person was a threat.
Carlos, a pal of Durán Guerrero’s and a neighbor in his constructing, referred to as him “an excellent person, a good father, good husband.”
Isabel Paredes, one other neighbor, stated Durán Guerrero and his household had been well-known in the realm. “They say they were a very calm family, that the young man was very dedicated to working and taking care of his wife and daughter,” stated Paredes, her voice breaking.
“There are a lot of people who have been trying to talk to them and help them,” she stated of Durán Guerrero’s relations, whom she described as scared.
Durán Guerrero’s demise has moved the neighborhood and prompted questions from a number of elected officers.
“ICE, out of our neighborhoods,” “Biddeford was built by immigrants,” “How would you feel if your child lost their father?” learn some indicators that neighbors left Tuesday on the makeshift memorial.
Last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston whereas on his method to work. ICE, in a press release, stated he tried to evade arrest when brokers tried to conduct a visitors cease, describing it as a “targeted enforcement operation.” Salgado Araujo was not the goal of an immigration operation, based on a supply with preliminary particulars about the incident.
“These are not isolated incidents: they reflect an immigration control system that continues to operate with very little transparency, very little accountability, and devastating consequences for our communities,” stated New York Assembly member Jessica González-Rojas in a press release. “No one should fear that an encounter with federal immigration agents could end in tragedy.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday condemned the younger man’s demise, calling it “a murder.” He demanded “the murderers pay for their homicide,” based on a publish he wrote on X.
This story has been up to date.