Maine attorney criticizes Vance’s remarks about Biddeford shooting
Benjamin Gideon, an attorney for the family of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, at what Democrats called a “shadow hearing” earlier this month in Biddeford. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)
A Maine attorney said Vice President JD Vance’s characterization of a fatal shooting in Biddeford by a federal officer was “completely disingenuous and purposefully misleading.”
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in July. While visiting Brewer on Monday, Vance told reporters that Democrats, who recently held what they called a “shadow hearing” in Biddeford to discuss the shooting, “are far more worried about a shooting involving an illegal alien than they are about the fact that tens of thousands of Mainers died of fentanyl overdoses by that poison brought into our community.”
Responding to a question about whether the Trump administration is investigating the shooting, Vance said: “My message to the Democrats who are so worried about that situation is to say: Have a little bit of perspective. We can absolutely investigate every shooting, and we will, but we can also secure our border and ensure that that poison stops coming into our country.”
Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old from Colombia, was the father of a 3-year-old girl, had been issued a federal work permit, and was complying with immigration proceedings, Benjamin Gideon, an attorney for Durán Guerrero’s family, has said. In a statement Tuesday he said there has not been any indication that Durán Guerrero or anyone else targeted by the ICE agents’ operations that day were connected to the drug trade.
“The vice president’s suggestion that killing Johan Sebastián was justified or acceptable as a cost of addressing the illicit fentanyl trade is completely disingenuous and purposefully misleading,” Gideon said in the statement.
He questioned Vance’s count of “tens of thousands” of overdoses, saying state data shows the number to be less. Gideon also cited Maine’s declining number of fatal overdoses.
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On Monday, Vance responded to a question about whether the federal government is investigating the shooting, saying: “Of course the Trump administration, our Department of Justice, everybody investigates this stuff. Because we want everybody — whether they’re political friends or not — everybody has to follow the law in the United States of America.”
Gideon said neither he nor his clients have received word from any federal investigators. The family has heard from the Office of the Maine Attorney General, which also announced an investigation into the shooting last month. Gideon said a detective for the state interviewed both Durán Guerrero’s partner and his sister.
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A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said they had no updates Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for the vice president’s office.
DHS has declined to identify the agent who shot Durán Guerrero, but David Brouillette, a deportation officer from Manchester, has been identified as the shooter by several people who know him. Brouillette has not responded to multiple requests for comment and a phone number for him was out of service Tuesday afternoon.
CBS has reported that sources confirmed the FBI is not conducting a civil rights investigation into Durán Guerrero’s death, and The New York Times reported that federal agents were told last month the FBI will not be investigating claims of assault against DHS officers.
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Tagged: biddeford ice shooting, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, JD Vance
Emily Allen covers courts for the Portland Press Herald. It's her favorite beat so far — before moving to Maine in 2022, she reported on a wide range of topics for public radio in West Virginia and was. More by Emily Allen
