“My Neighbor Was Murdered By White Supremacists”: Zeteo Reports From Maine On Yet Another ICE Killing

By Andrew Perez|Zeteo

Photos: YouTube Screenshot|Zeteo

BIDDEFORD, Maine – Thirty-six hours after Donald Trump’s masked secret police killed Joan Sebastián Guerrero, his blood is still on the ground, stained into the road.

“This is blood,” someone has written in chalk. There’s a memorial on the sidewalk with bouquets of flowers, candles, notes, cardboard signs, and a drawing of Guerrero. There’s a stuffed bear and a toy lobster. A dozen people stand across the street, outside a pawn shop, protesting solemnly, as cars drive by.

“It felt important to come out and stand for community and connection against destruction and disorder; that’s why I’m still standing here,” Gracelyn Kilpatrick, a 36-year-old Biddeford resident, tells Zeteo, as she holds an American flag. “I’ve been here for about three hours now, and I don’t want to leave this space unattended… I know that there are vigils and protests going on in other places. I think it’s really important to be here.”

Since the start of his second presidency, Trump has brought an intensifying level of disorder and destruction throughout the United States, as he’s turned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into an unaccountable paramilitary force that wages war on American cities, kidnaps immigrants, and kills people with impunity, sometimes on video. Republicans – including Maine Senator Susan Collins, who’s up for re-election – have responded to mounting public outrage by defending ICE and showering it with cash.

The circumstances under which ICE first engaged Guerrero, a Colombian immigrant, remain murky. ICE has claimed Guerrero, who was authorized to work in the U.S. and had a Social Security number, attempted to flee in his car, and that an agent shot him out of fear “for public safety.” Video of the aftermath shows Guerrero’s vehicle driving in circles. As an agent tears him out of his car, Guerrero’s lifeless body slams into the ground. Rather than try to administer aid, the agents put handcuffs on him. He was 25.

Neighbors watched and heard Guerrero’s wife and daughter cry out as they looked upon his dead body. Speaking about the daughter, one witness told the Portland Press Herald, “She was still in her Bluey pajamas.” (The paper has now identified Guerrero’s killer as agent David Brouillette, whose ex-wife said he called her and asked her “to lie for him and to cover for his character.”)

Talking with Zeteo, Kilpatrick says, “For that to happen in front of his family and his 3-year-old daughter, it’s shocking.”

And yet, Guerrero’s senseless death wasn’t entirely a shock. Trump’s administration has had Maine in its crosshairs since at least the winter, when it surged ICE agents to the state as part of “Operation Catch of the Day” – named as such because, for Team Trump, dehumanizing people and tearing families apart aren’t just policy priorities, but something to laugh about.

“I know what it looks like when shit’s bad, and this is bad,” Troy Sargent, a 40-year-old veteran, tells Zeteo at the protest, across the street from where Guerrero’s blood has stained the road. “There’s blood in the street right there… and it doesn’t really matter the reason – whether he was undocumented, it doesn’t matter. You don’t do that.”

Sargent says he’s been a teacher for over a decade. “Most of my students have been either first-generation or their parents came over here, and they don’t have a lot of English proficiency, and they are the best people I’ve ever known,” he says. “They’re the nicest families. They’re so hardworking, and that’s what I think makes America great.”

Speaking of Trump, Sargent says, “Seeing the way that he has demonized and coalesced this group of ignorant, angry people to hate people who are just here trying to make a life for themselves and who would love to be proud Americans, I can’t stand by that… If they don’t think that we’re out here giving a damn, then they’re going to keep doing this.”

Several journalists film stand-ups on the street corners, with the protest in the background, as reporters mill about the neighborhood, noticeable in their dress shirts. Some are “from away,” as Mainers would say. While Guerrero’s slaying has traumatized the local community, it is a national political story, too, and justifiably so: His death is the inevitable outcome of policy decisions made by Trump and Republicans in DC. They do not plan to end the violence. It will continue.

At nearby Mechanics Park, on Main Street, a dozen or so protesters are loudly chanting “ICE out! ICE out!” as cars pass by. Some honk. Along the fence, overlooking the Saco River, there’s another memorial with notes and flowers and signs. There’s a photo of Guerrero with his wife and baby.

“ICE = Nazi Scum,” one sign says. “Biddeford was built by immigrants,” says another. A couple holds up a painting that says “American genocide, coming to your community.”

“I’m here today because my neighbor was murdered by white supremacists,” says Jessica, a 32-year-old protester, who lives on Guerrero’s street. “Immigrants make Biddeford special… Anytime I’ve ever needed help with anything, a car stuck in the snow, if they see you struggling, my immigrant neighbors show up in multiples. They don’t need to be asked. They come to help.”

She says “it was an absolute horror to wake up and look out my window to a crime scene,” adding: “ICE is terrorizing my community and killing innocent people.”

Another protester, Katie, tells Zeteo, “I don’t think that people should leave the streets until justice is had… I’m not going to let this corner be empty.”