When Ashley Brouillette’s ex-husband told her in late 2025 that ICE had hired him, she thought he was having a mental health episode. She didn’t believe him. She realized he was telling the truth this week when videos of a shooting in Biddeford, Maine, began circulating online, and she recognized his face.

The man she had divorced in 2009, because he became physically violent, had been given a federal badge and a gun. On July 13, 2026, he used that gun to shoot and kill 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national, near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford. Johan’s partner, Karolina Rojas, described him to the AP as a loving, hardworking man who did everything to make her and their daughter happy.

Ashley has decided to go public. “I’ve been silenced long enough,” she told the outlet. “And now I need to come out with everything because a man lost his life.”

What Happened in Biddeford

At approximately 7 a.m. on July 13, ICE was conducting what the Department of Homeland Security described as “targeted surveillance” at the last known address of a person with a final order of removal. Durán Guerrero left a residence in a vehicle. ICE agents attempted a traffic stop. DHS said the vehicle attempted to flee, and “fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.” An officer shot Durán Guerrero. He died from his injuries.

At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since President Donald Trump launched his deportation crackdown. Durán Guerrero was 25.

DHS has not officially confirmed the identity of the officer. ICE spokesperson Lauren Bis told the AP the agency “will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers,” adding that “the ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training, including use of force training.” Three of David Brouillette’s relatives confirmed his identity to the AP, and Brouillette himself told both Ashley and their daughter Madison that he had pulled the trigger.

Who Did ICE Hire?

David Brouillette, 37, carried diagnoses of severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder from childhood, attempted suicide twice at age 12, and was hospitalized multiple times, according to an immediate relative who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. That relative described him as “extremely mentally ill” and said they had cut off contact years ago, fearing he would harm them.

Military recruiters initially rejected him because of those diagnoses, but encouraged him to stop taking his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, per his immediate relative. He served in the Maine Army National Guard from November 2007 to January 2010, then joined the regular Army and deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013, eventually leaving as a sergeant in December 2015, per military records provided to the AP. His immediate relative said that Afghanistan made everything worse: “They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.”

After his discharge, Brouillette worked a series of jobs — a medium-security prison, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, a VA police position — spending less than a year at each, per public records and court documents obtained by the AP. He enrolled in a firefighting program at Southern Maine Community College but could not complete it after a steel beam struck him in the head during a training exercise, causing a concussion, cognitive deficits, vertigo, and impaired memory, according to a lawsuit he filed. He later drove trucks, collected VA disability pay, and quit driving in January 2025, citing health issues. In March 2025, he passed a real estate licensing exam. By late 2025, he had joined ICE.

“I’ve Been Silenced Long Enough”

Ashley and David Brouillette married in 2007 after growing up together in Gardiner, Maine. She divorced him in 2009 after he became physically violent, abuse she told the AP began after she got pregnant with their daughter. He once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child, she said. Her mother, Avis Collins, confirmed that account to the AP.

The abuse did not end when she left. Ashley told Forbes she had spent years dealing with “harassing phone calls, threats of him wanting to kill me.” She also reported concerns about his mental health to his superiors in the military.

When he told her he had joined ICE in late 2025, she told the AP she thought he was being delusional. She only understood he had been telling the truth when his photo spread online this week. Her first question: “How do you keep getting into these jobs where you’re around guns all the time?”

“I believe that this man was murdered,” she told the AP. “I believe that David’s mental health played a part in what happened.”

She added, “I think what happened is he was standing there during that operation, had a PTSD moment, and hit ‘fight or flight’ mode. And unfortunately, a man lost his life due to it.”

The Voicemail ICE Never Heard

Around the same time Brouillette joined ICE in late 2025, he left Ashley a three-minute voicemail mocking her for taking out a restraining order. She shared the recording with the AP. In it, he called her “disgusting” and said she and the women in her “bloodline” should die.

“And all of you should have your f——g throats cut,” the voicemail said, per the AP. “Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I’m gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f——g throats cut? Or should I have had them cut? Yep.”

She cut off contact. When footage of the shooting circulated online this week, she reached out. He acknowledged over a Facebook audio call that he had killed Durán Guerrero. Then came the request. “He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him,” Ashley told the AP. She refused. “He was asking me to lie for him and to cover for his character,” she told the Portland Press Herald.

A Second Ex-Wife and a Pattern of Abuse

The AP is not identifying Brouillette’s second ex-wife because she fears retaliation, but hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court detail years of allegations on behalf of herself and her daughter. She alleged Brouillette stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his teenage daughter: he tackled the girl, smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another episode dragged her around the house as she cried, per the AP.

In a 2021 application for a temporary protective order, she wrote: “Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression.” A judge granted the order. Brouillette denied the allegations and accused her of slander in court filings. This week, following the shooting, she filed for a new protective order seeking sole custody of their daughter. A judge denied the initial request, finding her allegations “insufficient to support a finding that the plaintiff and/or minor child is or are in immediate and present danger of abuse from the defendant.”

Madison Brouillette, 18, the daughter Ashley shares with David, told the AP she grew up watching her father struggle. She came home from school once, and he told her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head. He called her on Wednesday and told her he had killed Durán Guerrero. “I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” she told the AP. “I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing.”

“If you don’t really, truly take care of yourself, there’s no way you can protect other people,” Madison said. “And with my dad, he never wanted to get help.”

ICE’s Vetting Process Under Scrutiny

The question of how Brouillette passed a federal background check has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers.

An AP investigation in April found that ICE had hired officers in recent months who had filed for bankruptcy, carried unpaid debts, and faced legal action for misconduct in previous law enforcement jobs. DHS acknowledged to the AP that some officers received temporary clearance to work before their full background checks were completed, saying, “Vetting is an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence.”

ICE has also faced allegations of cutting training time to deploy new agents more quickly, which it denied to the AP. In response to public pressure following the shooting, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agency would extend new officer training from 50 to 71 days, per the AP.

When asked directly about the AP’s reporting on Brouillette’s history, Mullin said: “I have not heard that at all. But we understand that it’s being investigated and we’ll allow the investigation to go through,” per Forbes.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., issued a statement in response to the AP’s reporting: “This agent clearly should never have had a gun—let alone one provided to him by the United States government. And now a man is dead. I’m going to continue demanding answers and accountability.”

ICE paused most vehicle stops in the days following Durán Guerrero’s killing, after a separate ICE-involved shooting occurred during a traffic stop in Texas.

Ashley Brouillette said she watched footage of the shooting from every angle. “In his head it’s justified,” she told the Portland Press Herald. “He’s unusually calm about it.”

Tags: Ice