Federal forces shoot and kill four people in 10 days
MAINE
On Monday, July 13, ICE officers shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old father from Colombia legally authorized to work in the United States.
Very little is known about the circumstances of the killing. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims that ICE agents were surveilling the home of an undocumented immigrant with a final order of removal when Durán left the residence in a vehicle. According to DHS, agents attempted a traffic stop and Durán tried to flee. Notably, DHS does not claim that the agents feared for their lives. Instead, it says the officer fired because he "fear[ed] for public safety." Durán was not the intended target of the arrest operation.
Eyewitnesses say that after Durán was shot in the head, he was still alive when agents pulled him from the vehicle and handcuffed him. “I tried to stop,” he reportedly said:
Daniel Boucher was getting ready for work Monday morning when he heard what sounded like fireworks going off outside of his home near downtown Biddeford. He rushed to the window, where he said he saw an SUV trying to ram a small white car in the intersection. Moments later, agents in vests stopped the car and pulled the driver out.
“He was bleeding profusely from the head,” Boucher said later Monday morning. “He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop.'” Boucher watched in disbelief as the man’s legs stopped moving as he lay on the ground. He believes he watched him die. [...]
“He was saying he was trying to stop and then he died. Why? Because he was driving a car?” he said.
Durán’s family was present in the car when he was shot. Neighbors described the aftermath:
Cecelia Humiston woke up Monday morning to commotion outside her Chapel Street apartment in Biddeford. The 22-year-old walked out and saw what appeared to be a person on the ground on Pool Street, then heard yelling from other neighbors and cries from a family in distress — two women and a young child.
“She couldn’t have been older than three,” said Humiston, who has a 2-year-old son. “She was still in her Bluey pajamas.”
Just minutes after a man was shot and killed, reportedly by federal immigration officials, Humiston saw who she believes was the victim’s daughter. She said the older of the two women yelled to law enforcement, “You took her dad, you took her dad!” [...]
Humiston described the law enforcement officials as “rude,” and said they barricaded the family’s car from leaving. Another yelled at the little girl, who she said was trying to smell flowers.
TEXAS
On Tuesday, July 7, ICE officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old construction worker from Mexico who had lived in the United States for 35 years.
According to a statement from DHS, Salgado Araujo “attempted to evade arrest,” “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle,” and “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” prompting an ICE agent to fire “in self-defense.”
However, eyewitness testimony and video evidence contradict the federal government’s account. Shortly before encountering ICE, Salgado Araujo had picked up three co-workers — Jose Trinidad Rojas, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, and Victor Salgado (Lorenzo’s brother) — on the way to work at a construction site. The three men, all being held separately in immigration detention, recounted the same version of events to the Washington Post:
When the van accelerated as the light turned green, the unfamiliar vehicle pulled out onto the shoulder, accelerated and cut in front of Salgado Araujo, who was driving, and tapped on the brakes, the men said. That’s when Salgado Araujo made a U-turn. At that point, officers turned on their police lights, according to the testimony they gave the attorney.
As the vehicle continued onto Canal Street, they proceeded slowly because of heavy construction on the roadway. The men told Balderas-Ibarra they were moving at no more than 5 mph on the road. They said ICE rammed their vehicles into the work van, but that at no point did Salgado Araujo use his vehicle to hit law enforcement’s cars.
At one point, there was an ICE vehicle on each side of the van, the men told the attorney. […] An officer then jumped out of one of the vehicles, ran toward them from the side and yelled, “Stop!” He started firing from the passenger side of the van, hitting Salgado Araujo in the abdomen. Victor Salgado, the driver’s brother, said he felt the force of the firearm as the agent pointed his gun toward his brother. [...]
Salgado Araujo was able to stop the van and place it in park, the men said, but the officer or officers continued to unload additional rounds from the sides of the vehicle. Rojas described the agents violently pulling Salgado Araujo out of the driver’s seat and throwing him to the ground. They put shackles on the men’s wrists and ankles. Victor Salgado said his brother was yelling for help as he was bleeding out.
Video evidence analyzed by the New York Times likewise does not show Salgado Araujo ramming an ICE vehicle or attempting to run over an officer. Security camera footage cobbled together from nearby businesses and residences depicts two unmarked SUVs chasing the white van and attempting to force it off the road. The van is then seen driving away as ICE officers exit their vehicles before leaving the cameras' field of view. The shooting appears to have occurred during that gap in coverage. The next available footage shows the van slowing to a stop as two agents approach to arrest the occupants.
As in the Maine shooting, Salgado Araujo was not the intended target of immigration enforcement and DHS claims none of the officers involved in the shooting were wearing body cameras.
TENNESSEE
Members of a federal “crime-fighting” task force shot and killed two people in two separate incidents over the span of four days last week.
The so-called Memphis Safe Task Force, deployed in the city since October 2025, consists of hundreds of federal officers, including FBI, DEA, ATF, and Homeland Security Investigations agents, and over a thousand Tennessee National Guardsmen. While the federal government claims that the task force has reduced crime, data from the Memphis Police Department shows that crime had been steadily declining before the task force was created, reaching a “historic” 25-year low. Instead, the task force appears to be political punishment of a Democratic city, similar to what we saw in the Twin Cities but without the comprehensive media coverage.
Memphis residents report rampant racial profiling targeting the city’s Black and Hispanic population, widespread violations of First Amendment rights, and immigration arrests in every neighborhood.
Among those who have reported being harassed: a ride-share driver stopped for not wearing a seat belt despite having one on as she drove a passenger to the airport; a pastor pulled over for looking lost as she left a church gathering; and, in a case of mistaken identity, a 72-year-old man roused from bed and marched out of his apartment while clad in only his robe and underwear. [...]
“I really believe that if I didn’t have that birth certificate, I would be somewhere in a facility,” said Williams, recalling one of the armed federal agents approaching him aggressively to ask if he was from Ethiopia or Ghana. “If you’re not white, we’re just all going to be targeted.”
The first fatal shooting took place on Sunday, July 5. Two National Guard soldiers responding to reports of gunshots in the early morning hours claim to have seen Tyrin Johnson, a 20-year-old Black man, leaving the area carrying a handgun. According to local police, the guardsmen opened fire after Johnson turned toward them with his weapon. Johnson died at the scene.
It should be noted that it is legal to publicly carry a handgun in Tennessee. Johnson’s grandfather has called for the release of video evidence, disputing the official account and questioning whether deadly force was justified.
Johnson, a former correctional officer with the Davidson County Sheriff's Office in Nashville, disputes that his grandson would have tried to fire a gun at U.S. guard members and that deadly force would be needed if he was running away. His grandson, he said, was “no hoodlum.”
According to his grandfather, Tyrin Johnson carried a gun for protection after being “jumped” recently in Nashville and was likely wary about being attacked again over a murky social media feud.
The second person killed by the task force last week was Alfonso Ivy, a 47-year-old Black man shot by DEA agents serving a drug warrant at a hotel room. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, agents opened fire after Ivy pointed a handgun at task force members. Few additional details about the encounter have been made public.
- In May 2026, members of the task force also killed Darrin Pigram, alleging he reached for a weapon, and Jonah Neal, claiming he was armed and threatening self-harm.