The ICE officer who shot and killed a 25-year-old Colombian man in his car in Biddeford, Maine this week threw boiling water at his ex-wife while she was holding their baby, told a relative someone should slit her throat, and was hospitalized multiple times as a child after two suicide attempts at age 12. According to an AP exclusive, David Brouillette's own family says he never should have been handed a badge and a gun. DHS handed him one anyway.
Who Is David Brouillette
Brouillette, 37, shot and killed Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero on Monday while Duran Guerrero sat in his car near his home in Biddeford. DHS has not released the officer's name and offered the standard line: the vehicle attempted to flee, an officer feared for public safety, shots were fired. Case closed, as far as they're concerned.
It is not case closed. Because the AP went out and did the actual reporting DHS clearly hoped nobody would do, and what they found is damning in a way that goes beyond this one shooting.
Brouillette told both his ex-wife and his 18-year-old daughter, in separate calls after the shooting, that he killed Duran Guerrero. His ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, told the AP she initially didn't even believe he worked for ICE when he mentioned it late last year. She thought he was having a mental health episode. She didn't realize he'd been telling the truth until the videos started circulating online.
The Family Court Paper Trail
There is no criminal record for Brouillette in Maine. A check with the Maine Department of Public Safety came up empty. So on paper, at least the paper ICE apparently checked, he looked fine.
But the AP obtained hundreds of family court records from the Augusta District Court clerk's office. Hundreds. Those records detail years of allegations from his second ex-wife, including stalking, harassment, and physical abuse of his daughter. A judge granted a temporary protective order in 2021. In her application, his second ex-wife wrote, and this is a direct quote: "Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD and depression."
There was also the incident where Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair. And the separate incident where he dragged her around the house while she cried. His first ex-wife Ashley told the AP he began physically abusing her after she got pregnant, and once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child. Her mother separately confirmed the same incident to the AP.
In response to the family court filings, Brouillette said his second ex-wife had slandered him. That's it. That was his answer.
The Mental Health History His Daughter Confirmed Out Loud
An immediate relative, speaking anonymously to the AP out of fear of retaliation, said Brouillette was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child. He attempted suicide twice at age 12. He was hospitalized multiple times. That same relative cut off contact with him years ago because they were afraid he would hurt them.
Ashley Brouillette confirmed the bipolar diagnosis to the AP. Their daughter Madison told the AP she once came home from school to find her father had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head. She was direct about what she saw: "If you don't really, truly take care of yourself, there's no way you can protect other people. And with my dad, he never wanted to get help."
That is a teenager describing her father, a man who is now a federal law enforcement officer, accurately diagnosing exactly why he should not be a federal law enforcement officer. Clearer than anything DHS has said publicly.
ICE's Response, Such As It Is
When the AP reached out to ICE for comment on Brouillette's record, spokesperson Lauren Bis said the agency would "never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers." Dox. They used the word dox. Asking whether a federal agent who just killed someone was adequately vetted is now, apparently, doxxing.
Bis did add that "the ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training." The White House referred all questions to ICE. The circle of buck-passing is complete.
Brouillette himself did not respond to text messages or an email from the AP. ICE has not released his name officially. Three relatives say he told them he acted in self-defense.
This Is Not an Isolated Incident
At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump relaunched his crackdown after taking office again, according to the AP. Ten people. Duran Guerrero, 25 years old, is the most recent.
The Trump administration went on an aggressive ICE hiring spree to staff up its deportation operation, and critics and members of Congress have been asking for months how carefully DHS was vetting the people it hired. This case is not going to make that question easier to dismiss. Democrats in Congress are already demanding answers, according to the AP's own reporting on the fallout from this story.
And yet the official position of the United States Department of Homeland Security is: we cannot comment on our officers, everything was fine, move along.
The Dingo Take
Let's be precise about what happened here. A man with two childhood suicide attempts, a severe bipolar disorder diagnosis, court-documented allegations of abuse against women and children, and a voicemail in which he told a family member someone should slit her throat, passed whatever vetting process DHS used and was given a gun and federal law enforcement authority. He then shot a 25-year-old man to death in a car. And the agency's official response to questions about his background was to accuse reporters of doxxing him.
This is the direct and predictable consequence of building a law enforcement expansion on speed instead of rigor. When you are in a hurry to hire enough bodies to carry out a mass deportation agenda, you cut corners. The AP didn't find this history through some deep investigative magic. They talked to his family and went to a courthouse. His ex-wife didn't even believe he worked for ICE because she thought he was too mentally ill to have passed a background check. She was wrong, and a 25-year-old man is dead.
DHS will hide behind "officer safety" and "ongoing investigation" for as long as they can. They will call every journalist who asks a question a doxxer. They will wait for the news cycle to move. What they will not do is explain how David Brouillette got a badge. Because there is no good answer to that question, and everyone involved knows it.
