Snopes.com7%
Did Joan Sebastian Guerrero's daughter witness ICE agent fatally shooting him? What we know 4%
By Taija PerryCook8%
7/15/2026, 12:41:06 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Quote-first Misdirection, and Framing Effect, with Availability Heuristic as the most egregious example at 9.8% saturation with 133 hits. Analysis detected 620 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,357 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 18% and a BS Rank of 4% (15,661 of 16,256 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 96.30% of the article peer group.
The claim that Joan Sebastian Guerrero's 3-year-old daughter witnessed a U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shoot her father on July 13, 2026, is unproven.
Bystanders said a young girl was present in the aftermath of the shooting, but the claim that she witnessed the shooting itself is unsupported by evidence.
The rumor stems from an article by the Portland Press Herald in which Cecelia Humiston, a witness, described seeing a young child in Bluey pajamas in the aftermath of the shooting.
She said a woman, possibly a family member, yelled to law enforcement, "You took her dad, you took her dad!"
Humiston clarified to Snopes that she did not witness the shooting itself — she arrived approximately 30 to 45 minutes afterward.
Snopes spoke to another witness who was on the scene within about one minute of the shooting and stayed about 10 to 15 minutes, who said, "The length of time I was a witness I did not see a child.
Only the extremely distraught wife."
Two other witnesses reported seeing his daughter on the scene in the aftermath of the shooting.
Snopes will update this report if additional information surfaces.
On the morning of July 13, 2026, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old man from Colombia, in his car in Biddeford, Maine, as he headed to work — the second fatal ICE shooting in one week.
The ICE agents on the scene were apparently not wearing body cameras, according to U.S.
Sen.
Angus King, a Maine independent, leaving many details of the shooting unknown.
While witness testimony and video footage emerged — some showing [WARNING: graphic content] ICE agents dragging Guerrero's limp body from the car before handcuffing him — a claim circulated widely online that Guerrero's 3-year-old daughter witnessed the shooting.
The claim that an ICE agent shot Guerrero in front of his daughter spread on news media outlets with headlines such as "ICE fatally shot dad in front of his 3-year-old daughter still in her pajamas, witness reveals" (The Independent) and "Protests after ICE agents kill man in front of young daughter" (Australia's Nine.com.au).
Social media users, including U.S.
Rep.
Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, also spread the claim, with some posts archived also alleging Guerrero's daughter was actually in the car with him.
Bystanders said a young girl was present at the scene in the aftermath of the shooting, though the claim that she witnessed the shooting itself is unsupported by evidence.
Here's what we know:
It's unclear when Guerrero's family or his daughter arrived
Rumors that Guerrero's child saw the shooting likely stemmed from an article archived by the Portland Press Herald in which Cecelia Humiston, a witness, described waking up to commotion outside her apartment and going outside to see a body lying on the ground and two women with a young girl nearby who appeared to be Guerrero's daughter.
"She couldn't have been older than 3," Humiston told the Herald.
"She was still in her Bluey pajamas."
She told the Herald that the elder of the two women yelled to law enforcement, "You took her dad, you took her dad!"
We spoke with Humiston, who said via Facebook Messenger she didn't witness the shooting itself, and clarified that she arrived at the scene approximately 30 to 45 minutes after it occurred, at which point, she said, the family was already there.
According to Humiston, there was only one house between Guerrero's family's home and the intersection where the shooting took place, meaning his family could have arrived at the scene immediately even if they weren't present for the shooting itself.
Humiston wrote to us:
As far as I'm aware she witnessed the aftermath, there's many stories circling saying that she was in the car, which I found out is not true.
I did not witness the shooting with my own eyes, I just live where it happened.
I went outside [shortly] after, and that's where I saw the family and the child.
The man's body was laying in the street, and the child was outside with her mother during the terrible time.
What I witnessed specifically was the mother of the child completely distraught, and the child trying to smell flowers while Biddeford police yelled at the child, I also witnessed the family trying to leave, and police harassing them and swarming their car.
"I just would like if people didn't use my name for misinformation, or quote me on things I simply didn't say," Humiston said.
"I did not witness the shooting itself happen, I witnessed the family upset and the police trying to tell them they couldn't leave."
We reached out to the Biddeford Police Department seeking further information.
We will update this story if we receive a response.
What did other witnesses say?
Other witnesses described hearing gunshots before seeing a car rolling forward in a circle, apparently out of control.
CCTV footage shows an ICE vehicle hitting the side of the car, blocking it, before agents pulled Guerrero out of the vehicle and handcuffed him.
"I know that he was still cognizant because they told him to calm down, calm down," witness Daniel Boucher told CBS News.
"His girlfriend was across the street, I'll never forget that.
She was hysterical and crying and sitting on the curb with an EMT and a police officer, I believe, and they walked her away from the scene," Boucher said.
He also said that he clearly heard Guerrero tell the agents, "I tried to stop," before he died.
Boucher told us that he was on the scene almost immediately, about one minute after the shooting, and stayed for 10 to 15 minutes.
"The length of time I was a witness I did not see a child," he said over Facebook Messenger.
"Only the extremely distraught wife.
Very sad."
Another witness, Mary Hayes, reportedly told The Associated Press: "I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband's dead body on the ground" and "I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she's never going to see her father again."
Neighbor Nelson Elias said he had chatted with Guerrero in the past, and told NBC News he saw "his wife and the daughter, you know, crying on the street."
What remains unknown
In an emailed statement to Snopes, a spokesperson for ICE wrote that its agents were "conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal," though officials reportedly said Guerrero was "not the target of the warrant."
"ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop," the ICE spokesperson said.
"The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon.
The driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted.
He was identified as Colombian national Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero.
He passed away from his injuries."
According to The Associated Press, federal officials told ICE officers to suspend most vehicle stops after a third man in roughly a week died while fleeing ICE officers on July 14, 2026, reportedly after he was hit by a tractor trailer.
By July 15, U.S.
President Donald Trump had apparently reversed this order, writing on Truth Social: "We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!
Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal's hands."
Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number, according to a joint statement by immigrant rights group Presente!
and the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition.
In its public statement on July 13, the Department of Homeland Security did not mention Guerrero's status.
A fundraiser apparently set up by friends of the Guerrero family reads, "He leaves behind his wife and their 3 year old daughter."
It's unclear, as of this writing, whether the child described at the scene by witnesses was indeed his child.
We will update this story as relevant information emerges.
Analysis
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