AUGUSTA, Maine — When David Brouillette told his former wife Ashley late last year that he had become an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, she didn’t take him seriously. But Ashley Brouillette said she had good reason to be skeptical — her ex-husband had been abusive, carried a long history of psychiatric problems, and in her view should never have been entrusted with a badge and a firearm. Other members of his family echoed those concerns to The Associated Press.
The truth of his claim didn’t hit her until this week, when footage began spreading across social media showing the moments surrounding the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an ICE officer in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.
Ashley Brouillette told the AP that she connected with her ex-husband through a Facebook audio call, during which he admitted he had killed Durán Guerrero. Their 18-year-old daughter, Madison Brouillette, also told the AP that her father called her on Wednesday and told her directly that he was the one who fired the fatal shot.
David Brouillette’s troubling background adds to growing scrutiny over how carefully the Department of Homeland Security has been screening new hires as it rapidly expanded its workforce to support President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement push. At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown following the start of his second term.
DHS, which oversees ICE and has not publicly identified the officer who shot Durán Guerrero, said in a statement that a “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”
When the AP reached out to ICE for comment regarding Brouillette’s background and his involvement in Monday’s shooting, a spokesperson responded: “We 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.”
Brouillette, 37, did not respond to text messages or an email requesting comment. Three relatives who said they had spoken with him since the shooting — including Ashley and Madison Brouillette — said he told them he acted in self-defense. The White House directed all questions about the shooting and Brouillette to ICE.
David and Ashley Brouillette were high school sweethearts who wed in 2007 and divorced two years later. She said he turned violent after she became pregnant, and that the abuse did not stop after she left the relationship.
A check with the Maine Department of Public Safety returned no criminal record for David Brouillette. However, hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk’s office paint a picture of years of alleged physical and verbal abuse, raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.
That second ex-wife — whom the AP chose not to name due to her fear of retaliation — alleged in multiple requests for temporary protection orders that Brouillette had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter.
“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in a 2021 application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter, which a judge granted.
In his own court filings, David Brouillette denied the allegations, accusing his second ex-wife of slander.
Madison Brouillette said she personally witnessed her father’s unstable behavior, recalling a time she came home from school to find him telling her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun pressed to his head.
An immediate relative of David Brouillette, who asked not to be identified, said he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child — a diagnosis Ashley Brouillette confirmed. The relative described him as “extremely mentally ill” and said he attempted suicide twice at age 12 and was hospitalized on multiple occasions.
That relative said they had been estranged from him for years, having cut off contact out of fear he would harm them. The relative said Brouillette did not respond to their attempts to reach him this week.
Growing up in Gardiner — a city of roughly 6,000 people located about 60 miles northeast of Biddeford, where Monday’s shooting took place — Brouillette was drawn to law enforcement and the military from an early age, relatives said.
He was initially turned away by military recruiters because of his mental health diagnoses, but was encouraged to stop taking his medications for a year before reapplying, which he did, according to his immediate relative. He was eventually allowed to enlist.
U.S. military records show Brouillette served in the Maine Army National Guard from November 2007 through January 2010, then transitioned to the regular Army as a human intelligence collector. He deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013 and was discharged as a sergeant in December 2015.
After leaving the Army, Brouillette cycled through a variety of jobs — some connected to law enforcement — and was injured during firefighter training, according to public records and court documents. By the end of 2021, he wrote in a text message included in court filings that he was broke, attending school full-time, and supplementing his income by delivering food for DoorDash.
In March, the Maine agency responsible for child support matters filed a lien against him, public records show, suggesting he may have been awaiting a permanent impairment or disability settlement.
Around the time he joined ICE in late 2025, Ashley Brouillette said he left her a three-minute voicemail mocking her for seeking a restraining order against him. In the message, which she shared with the AP, he repeatedly called her “disgusting” and suggested that she and the other women in her “bloodline” should die.
“And all of you should have your f——g throats cut,” the voicemail stated. “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 have had them cut? Yep.”
Ashley Brouillette said she had cut off all contact with him until Wednesday, when his photo started circulating online. She then reached out to his current wife on Facebook, and the two spoke by phone. During that call, her ex-husband got on the line and admitted he had fatally shot Durán Guerrero, according to cellphone screenshots she shared with the AP.
“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,” she said. “He said that the most important thing is his character right now.”
She said he told her he is currently in protective custody. When she pressed him on why he fired, he told her it was a justified shooting, saying the victim had tried to run him over with a vehicle. His daughter said he gave her the same explanation.
“I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” Madison Brouillette said.
