Killed driver had pending asylum case and valid work permit, Pingree says
Rep. Chellie Pingree said Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine on July 13 were targeting the 25-year-old Colombian national’s roommate, not Durán Guerrero himself. The roommate was the owner of the car Durán Guerrero was driving at the time, the Democratic congresswoman from Maine said.
Pingree disclosed the new targeting detail during a hearing held in Maine on Monday. The roommate, whom Pingree did not name in her remarks, was the owner of the vehicle that drew the agents’ gunfire near Durán Guerrero’s home.
Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by an ICE agent in a car near his Biddeford home on July 13. According to Pingree, it had already been established that Durán Guerrero was not the intended target of the operation.
Pingree called the discovery a “shocking revelation in clear contradiction to what ICE” and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have said about the shooting.
The congresswoman added that Durán Guerrero did not have a final order of removal at the time of his death, but did have a pending asylum case and a valid work permit.