Crucial Quote
“I believe that this man was murdered. I believe that David’s mental health played a part in what happened,” Ashley Brouillette told the AP about Guerrero’s death. “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 agent’s ex-wife also told the AP she was moved by the shooting to go public with her allegations of David Brouillette’s abuse, saying, “I’ve been silenced long enough, and now I need to come out with everything because a man lost his life.”
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What Has The Trump Administration Said About Brouillette?
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was asked Friday about the AP’s reporting on the ICE agent, only saying about the allegations of Brouillette’s abuse, “I have not heard that at all. But we understand that it’s being investigated and we’ll allow the investigation to go through. That’s all I’m going to say about that.”
What Did David Brouillette Tell His Family Members About The Shooting?
Ashley Brouillette said in an interview with the AP that David told her the shooting was “justified” and “claimed that [Guerrero] had tried to run him over,” to which Ashley responded, “I don’t see that in anything, and I’ve watched it from all angles,” referencing videos of the shooting. “In his head it’s justified. He’s unusually calm about it,” Ashley told the Press Herald. She said the ICE agent told her in a phone call that he “need[s] you to lie about my character,” and said he didn’t want her “to talk about any of the abuse in our relationship,” which Ashley refused to agree to. “He was asking me to lie for him and to cover for his character,” she told the Press Herald. Their daughter Madison Brouillette, 18, told the AP her father had called her Wednesday and also confessed to killing Guerrero. “I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” Madison Brouillette told the outlet. “I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing.”
Allegations Of Abuse Against David Brouillette
Ashley Brouillette and another ex-wife of the ICE agent, whom the AP did not name, have both alleged David Brouillette abused them and their children. Ashley Brouillette alleged her ex-husband at one point threw boiling water at her while she was holding their baby, the AP reports, and she has alleged his harassment has continued following their 2009 divorce. “I’ve dealt with harassing phone calls, threats of him wanting to kill me” in the years since they separated, Ashley Brouillette said. In court filings reported by the AP, David Brouillette’s other ex-wife requested multiple protective orders against him, alleging he had stalked and harassed her and “physically and verbally abused” his daughter, including “tackling her,” “smash[ing] spaghetti in her hair” and dragging her “around the house as she cried,” according to the AP. David Brouillette denied the allegations in court filings and accused the unnamed ex-wife of slander, the AP reports, but she was granted a temporary protective order on behalf of the daughter in 2021. She requested another protection order in court this week in the wake of the shooting, the Press Herald reports, which asks for sole custody of their daughter and references “concerns for her immediate safety and wellbeing” in light of the scrutiny into Brouillette. A judge denied her initial request, the Press Herald reports, saying the ex-wife’s allegations were “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.”
Maine Shooting Raises Scrutiny On ICE Hiring Practices
Brouillette being hired at ICE despite his history of mental illness has raised new scrutiny over the agency’s vetting process, as ICE has rapidly ramped up its hiring of new agents amid the Trump administration’s deportation push. Ashley Brouillette told the AP she initially thought her ex-husband was being “delusional” when he told her in November he had been hired by ICE, and only realized he was actually working for the agency when she saw public footage of the shooting. “How do you keep getting into these jobs where you’re around guns all the time?” she said she asked him. An AP investigation in April raised questions about the agency’s vetting process, finding ICE had hired officers in recent months who had filed for bankruptcy, had unpaid debts and faced legal action for misconduct in other law enforcement jobs. Homeland Security has acknowledged that some officers were given temporary clearance to work before their full background checks had been completed, telling the AP, “Vetting is an ongoing process, not a one-time occurrence.” ICE has also faced allegations of cutting its training in favor of deploying new agents more quickly, which it denied to the AP in April. Mullin said in July the agency would extend training for new officers from 50 to 71 days in response to public criticism against the agency.
What To Watch For
Whether Guerrero’s shooting will spur efforts to add guardrails on ICE agents, as Democratic lawmakers told the AP that Brouillette’s allegedly troubled background had exposed flaws in how the agency hires and deploys its officers. Reports suggest ICE has already temporarily paused its agents doing traffic stops, after Guerrero was killed during a traffic stop only days after a different stop resulted in an ICE-involved shooting in Texas. Guerrero’s killing is “exactly the intolerable danger that we feared as a result of arrest quotas and inadequate training,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement to the AP in response to its reporting on Brouillette. “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.”
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Further Reading
Man Shot By ICE In Maine Was Not Operation’s Target, Senator Says (Forbes)
ICE Pausing Most Vehicle Stops After Deadly Shootings In Maine And Texas (Forbes)
ICE agent who killed man in Biddeford identified as former Maine law enforcement officer (Portland Press Herald)
AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say (Associated Press)
Maine shooting and officer’s background raise new questions about ICE’s rapid hiring (Associated Press)
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