BIDDEFORD, Maine — Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain called for a transparent investigation into the fatal shooting of Johann Sebastián Durán Guerrero during an emotional City Council meeting Tuesday, as residents filled the council chambers to demand accountability, stronger local safeguards, and an end to cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The July 21 meeting opened exactly one week after Durán Guerrero was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on a Biddeford street.
LaFountain said he had met the previous day with Durán Guerrero’s partner, Carolina Rojas Alvarez, and his sister, Daniela, at the site of the shooting and the memorial that has grown there.
“They asked for justice,” LaFountain said. “Justice for the senseless killing of Johan, who was a father, a son, a brother, and a beloved partner.”
The mayor then asked the room to observe a moment of silence.
LaFountain described Durán Guerrero as a devoted father who worked multiple jobs, spent afternoons with his daughter, Dulce, at the playground at the J. Richard Martin Community Center, and had received federal authorization to work in the United States.
“Our own government had reviewed his paperwork, approved it, given him a permit to work, and given him a Social Security number,” LaFountain said. “Our government knew exactly who he was, and still one of its agents shot and killed him on a peaceful summer morning on a Biddeford street with no camera recording what happened.”
LaFountain said the meeting was not about where Durán Guerrero was born or intended to make a political point.
“We’re here because Johan was a member of this community, our community,” he said.
The mayor said the city was seeking two things: justice and truth.
He called for a complete and transparent accounting of the circumstances surrounding the shooting and said Durán Guerrero’s family should not be left to carry the burden alone.
LaFountain also addressed immigrant families who have expressed fear following the shooting.
“To our immigrant neighbors, you belong here,” he said. “You are part of who Biddeford is, and you should not have to carry this weight alone.”
The mayor recognized the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and Presente Maine for supporting Durán Guerrero’s family and the broader community.
LaFountain then read a proclamation demanding justice and accountability for the shooting and calling for changes to the nation’s immigration system.
The proclamation stated that Durán Guerrero had applied for and received authorization from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to work in the country. It noted that he had been issued an employment authorization document and Social Security number and was working multiple jobs and paying taxes.
The proclamation called for a “thorough, impartial, independent, and transparent investigation” involving Maine law enforcement authorities.
It also called for the preservation and disclosure of relevant evidence, including recordings, communications, reports, dispatch records, physical evidence, personnel information, and training materials.
The proclamation contrasted the equipment and training used by Biddeford police officers with those of the federal agent involved in the shooting. It noted that Biddeford officers wear body cameras and said the lack of recorded footage further damaged public trust in federal immigration enforcement.
LaFountain called on the federal government to halt what the proclamation described as reckless and deadly immigration enforcement activities in Biddeford.
The proclamation also urged Congress and the executive branch to replace the current immigration system with one based on dignity, family unity, accountability, due process, and respect for human life.
The city pledged to use its lawful authority and available resources to support Rojas Alvarez and her daughter during their grief.
After the proclamation, LaFountain opened the meeting to public comment and reminded speakers that hateful, discriminatory, profane, or indecent remarks would not be tolerated.
The testimony that followed ranged from praise for the mayor’s response to sharp criticism that the city had failed to act sooner.
Downtown business owner and Alfred Street resident Kelsey Cummings said she had been contacting government officials since January and argued that Biddeford residents and business owners had been asked to carry too much.
“Our community has stepped up too much,” Cummings said. “You are asking too much of us.”
She urged officials to recognize the diversity of Biddeford and said residents would continue fighting for their community.
Ward 5 resident Amy Kearns said transparency, accountability, and compassion should not be treated as partisan values.
“We don’t and we shouldn’t have to choose a political side to want what is best for our people and our community,” Kearns said.
She said Durán Guerrero’s life mattered and praised residents for responding to the tragedy with unity and compassion.
“This is the Biddeford I know,” Kearns said. “This is the Biddeford I believe in, and this is the Biddeford we need to continue to strive to be.”
Other speakers demanded a more aggressive response.
One speaker associated with Presente Maine said Durán Guerrero’s death should not be reduced to questions about immigration paperwork or legal status.
“No piece of paper determines whether a human being deserves to live or to die,” the speaker said.
The speaker called the shooting part of a broader pattern of violence involving federal immigration enforcement and accused officials of previously ignoring warnings that ICE’s continued presence in local communities could lead to someone being killed.
“We lived through an ICE occupation that never truly ended,” the speaker said. “At the time, we warned publicly at Presente that the longer ICE remained embedded in our communities, the more likely it was that someone was going to die.”
The speaker called for the total dismantling of ICE and urged Biddeford officials to block the deputization of local law enforcement and end cooperation between local agencies and ICE, Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI.
“If you want safe communities, ICE cannot be a part of them, full stop,” the speaker said.
Another speaker challenged the council to explain what municipal actions it planned to take beyond issuing statements and proclamations.
The speaker cited the council members’ oaths of office and said local officials had a responsibility to identify and use every lawful municipal power available to protect residents.
“The oath you took does not give you command over ICE, but it does require more than reciting what municipal government cannot do,” the speaker said.
The speaker called for the publication of the Biddeford Police Department’s policies, a legal review of the city’s federal agreements, and a public discussion of available municipal safeguards.
“Statements and proclamations tell us what you believe, but they don’t make us safe,” the speaker said.
The speaker also warned councilors that residents could organize to replace them through the electoral process if they failed to act.
Ward 1 resident Matt Haas thanked councilors for their leadership but asked what residents should do while the proclamation moved through the governmental process.
Haas suggested requiring ICE agents to notify or register with the Biddeford Police Department before entering the city.
“Let our police decide what the community needs to do to help, monitor, and ensure the laws are upheld,” Haas said.
A Kennebunkport resident suggested creating a permanent memorial at the site of the shooting.
The speaker said the flowers currently placed along the curb would eventually disappear and offered to make the first donation toward a permanent stone flower bed.
“This whole thing will be forgotten unless we create a memorial that symbolizes what happened here,” the speaker said.
Evan Lockwood said residents had warned city officials about the presence of ICE in Biddeford before the fatal shooting.
“You knew that this would happen,” Lockwood said. “This was a long time coming, and that’s sad to say.”
He said statements that the city had limited authority were not enough and urged officials to become more involved.
“There has to be something,” Lockwood said. “If you’re not emailing, if you’re not calling, then what are we doing?”
Catherine Crowley, who said she had lived in Biddeford for more than a decade, described the meeting as her first in-person appearance before the council.
Crowley said she had spent each day since the shooting attending protests, visiting the memorial, and replacing flowers.
She thanked the Biddeford Police Department and city employees for helping keep residents safe while they protested and grieved, but questioned whether local police would continue cooperating with ICE.
“Is Biddeford Police going to continue to cooperate with ICE if they come back?” Crowley asked.
Crowley said she lived near an incident in which an immigrant family was allegedly threatened by federal agents and said residents needed their elected officials to turn words into action.
She also thanked LaFountain for appearing at the vigil and said his presence gave her some faith that local government could respond.
Another speaker who identified as a member of an ICE watch committee said local activists also shared responsibility for failing to prevent the shooting.
“I feel responsible,” the speaker said. “I didn’t do enough.”
The speaker called for more residents to join local ICE watch efforts and criticized federal funding for detention facilities.
The speaker argued that Durán Guerrero had not been killed solely by one agent or one agency, but by a system driven by racism, greed, and private profit.
The speaker compared the effort to abolish ICE to Maine’s historical abolitionist movement against slavery.
“We need a strong abolitionist movement that says we are gonna get rid of ICE and we’re gonna get rid of the whole system that upholds ICE,” the speaker said.
Biddeford resident Victor Forsley said the mayor’s proclamation represented a strong stance but asked whether LaFountain had communicated with mayors in other cities that had faced similar incidents.
Forsley asked the city to provide additional information about how officials planned to address the issue and praised the council for listening to speakers with differing views.
“You should be proud of the way you’re willing to stand up for the city,” Forsley said.
Ward 4 resident Sam Bolick said Durán Guerrero was his neighbor and described ICE activity in the neighborhood in the months before the shooting.
Bolick said federal agents had been surveilling bus stops and that immigrant parents had removed children from school because of fear.
“I’ve seen my immigrant neighbors be pulled out of cars by ICE in front of the children who are at the bus stops,” Bolick said. “It has been horrific.”
Bolick described Durán Guerrero’s death as a “tragic inevitability” and said immigrant residents had been frightened since the beginning of the year.
“This is my very first time being here at a City Council meeting, and it won’t be my last,” Bolick said. “I feel so very let down by my elected officials that this was allowed to happen for so long.”
The meeting placed Biddeford’s government firmly on record demanding an investigation into Durán Guerrero’s death, but the public testimony made clear that many residents want the city to go further.
Public comment continued for more than an hour and half.
Mayor LaFountain’s proclamation states that the federal government had one of its agents “shoot and kill Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero on July 13, 202 in the streets of Biddeford Maine.”
Words matter.
The mayor is demanding a full investigation, yet his own proclamation appears that he has made his own decision.
For public comment speakers, the central question was no longer simply what happened on July 13, but what Biddeford officials intend to do before federal immigration agents return.
