Snapshot: The Ice Murder of Joan Sebastian Guerrero

These intolerable killings by an unfettered Trump regime must stop

A makeshift memorial for Joan Sebastian Guerrero earlier today for in Biddeford, Maine. (Photo by Ryan Murphy via Getty Images)

When Joan Sebastian Guerrero was murdered in his white Kia Rio yesterday by federal ICE agents, his three-year-old daughter was in the backseat. She was wearing her Bluey pajamas with a pink bag beside her.

As horrific—as unforgivable—as this killing is, it’s another terrible reminder that the impact of these deadly crimes committed by the Trump regime always extend beyond the specific victim. They create trauma that courses through the family, any witnesses and the community itself. Not only was this little girl’s father stolen from her, this violence risks destroying her life as well.

It does not make it any less intolerable that Guerrero, a 26-year old from Colombia, was reportedly authorized to work in the U.S. and had been issued a Social Security number. It does not make it any less senseless or disturbing that Homeland Security boss Markwayne Mullins said that Guerrero was not his agents’ target.

As we’ve heard before, ICE officials offered up a description of the killing intended to justify what happened. “ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop,” a spokesperson said. “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon.”

Yet witnesses at the scene in Biddeford, Maine, saw an SUV ram Guerrero’s Kia, heard as many as seven gunshots and saw agents pull Guerrero’s limp body out of the vehicle, its windshield riddled with four bullet holes. One witness, Daniel Boucher, who lives right near the intersection where the murder happened, said, “He was bleeding profusely from the head. He was talking. He said, ‘I tried to stop.'”

A reporter from the Portland Press Herald described the witness’ experience like this: “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 getting ready for work when the killing happened.

Guerrero reportedly was shackled and left on the ground for some five hours, his blood on the street. One witness saw a woman yell at the agents, referencing Guerrero’s little daughter, “You took her dad, you took her dad!”

Later in the day, hundreds of Maine residents took to the streets in protest. Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, said, “We are grieving, we are furious, and we will not allow his death to be treated as routine or inevitable. How much more harm must our communities endure before those with the power to act acknowledge that this has gone too far?”

One of the witnesses summarized her shock at Guerrero’s death: “This is Biddeford. Things like this never happen here.”

But “things like this” are now happening—in Biddeford, in Houston, in Minneapolis and elsewhere. To date, not one federal agent has been held accountable for their actions.

And as the tally of killings rises, with the help of our tax dollars, we can expect that the resulting trauma will continue to spread as these unforgivable crimes touch individuals, families and communities.

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