Humboldt Activist Who Observed Fatal ICE Shooting Aftermath in Maine Helped Organize Local Protests Yesterday

A Humboldt County activist who happened to be visiting family in Maine when ICE agents fatally shot a 26-year-old man this week has helped organize a local response — staging a protest at the Humboldt County Courthouse yesterday afternoon, with potentially another on the horizon.

AJ, a Humboldt County resident, local student and organizer with the 50501 movement, was in Biddeford, Maine when the shooting happened Monday morning near the intersection of Pool and Hill Streets.

“Best believe I got up and went straight away,” AJ said. “This is the first time I have been close enough to attend the subsequent protests and go to see the scene for one of these ICE killings.”

The man who was fatally shot Monday morning in Biddeford, Maine has been identified as 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian man who reportedly worked as a delivery driver, according to neighbors.

According to a June 2026 joint report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, at least 52 people died in ICE custody in the 500 days between President Trump’s second inauguration on January 20, 2025, and June 4, 2026 — a mortality rate the report describes as the highest in over a decade, and nearly four times the rate under the Biden administration. The report did not address deaths occurring during field enforcement operations such as the Biddeford shooting. However, ICE has shot and killed eleven people during Trump’s second term, according to reporting by the Guardian.

In an official statement issued Monday following the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security said, “ICE was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal. An illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle. ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon. The driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. He passed away from his injuries.”

But by Monday night, DHS had confirmed to Maine Sen. Angus King’s office that Guerrero was not the man they were looking for. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told King directly, ”the person that was killed was not the intended target of the operation in Biddeford today,” according to King’s office.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills called that reversal “even more disturbing and infuriating.” The agents involved were not wearing body cameras, according to King’s office. The FBI and DHS’s Inspector General are now leading the investigation. A photo published by the Portland Press Herald shows multiple bullet holes in the driver’s-side windshield of Guerrero’s car.

AJ said the shooting’s location in a residential neighborhood appeared to resonate with many Biddeford residents. AJ told us, “It’s in their hometown. It’s three streets away. It’s right there. They woke up this morning and there was a body of one of their neighbors lying in the street.”

“At the height of the protest,” in Biddeford on Monday, “it was like a thousand [people],” AJ estemated. “They started at Mechanics Park and were rallying there, and marched over to Senator Susan Collins’ office… then marched back to the park.”

As to the rally in Eureka Tuesday afternoon, AJ said the gathering at the Courthouse was intended as a show of solidarity with the community in Biddeford, Maine. A fluctuating crowd of between 30-50 people were seen holding signs and banners denouncing what they say is abuse of authority by DHS and ICE agents. One large banner read “Crush ICE” while several signs called for justice and accountability of federal agents.

The Cal Poly student and community organizer said the scale of community response in Biddeford is not disconnected from organizing already underway here, in Humboldt County. “We are already prepared and ready, working with Centro del Pueblo and the other rapid response networks for when ICE does come to Humboldt, and we will be ready to respond,” AJ said.

Guerrero’s death is one of a growing list of deaths related to excessive use of force by ICE, say critics of the Trump administration’s change in tactics which have increased the number of DHS agents tasked with immigration enforcement targeting neighborhood areas.

Guerrero reportedly leaves behind a wife and three year old daughter – both who were reported on scene when Joan Sebastian Guerrero died, and was put in handcuffs while laying limp, after being pulled from the vehicle by ICE agents in full view of the public.

AJ described the scene as heavily staffed by law enforcement, with local police working alongside ICE agents on scene. “There’s a lot of local police… state troopers, unidentified ICE… the fire department was there, they seem to be the ones washing things down,” they said.

AJ reflected on their first organizing experience with 50501 Humboldt, noting that the anti-ICE protests were where they began organizing. “My first big protest that I did with 50501 was [for] Renee Goode,” AJ told us, explaining, “that was that emergency protest, and then less than a month later, …we did it again for Alex Pretty, because he was shot by ICE, and we had vigils for that.” AJ said, “I am seeing all of the groups come together in Biddeford, talking to some of the organizers …seeing that they’re doing the same thing that we were doing at the start of the year,” they said.

Beyond Tuesday’s short-notice rally in solidarity with Biddeford, AJ hinted at more in store.

“I would, in fact, like to plan a rally, a vigil [soon],” AJ said in the days before returning home, and has since indicated that even after the “emergency rally” this evening, a further protest is already in the works.

“Humboldt, be on the lookout for the announcement…,” AJ told this reporter, adding, “when we have a little more information about this 26-year-old man from Colombia who was killed way too young, lost too early.”