The ex-wife of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot 26-year-old Colombian man Joan Sebastian Guerrero came forward to the Portland Press Herald to reveal her story about him — and it wasn't good.
According to the report, David Brouillette's ex-wife, Ashley, "told the Portland Press Herald in a phone interview Thursday afternoon that her ex-husband called admitting to the shooting and defending his actions. The Press Herald reviewed a screenshot of incoming calls Ashley Brouillette received from her ex-husband’s current wife’s Facebook account on Wednesday."
Ashley told the press, “He was asking me to lie for him and to cover for his character. I told him that I was not going to lie for him. And then he tried to say that it was a justified shooting because the guy tried to hit him with his car.” Nonetheless, she added, “In his head it’s justified. He’s unusually calm about it.”
ICE initially tried to run with this account of what happened, but this was contradicted by video evidence that clearly showed the agents were walking alongside Guerrero's car as it moved at slow speeds, and at no point did he attempt to run them down with it. They dragged his body out of the vehicle after shooting him and placed handcuffs on it.
Ashley said that rather than vouch for him, she went to the press instead because "she had previously reported concerns to his superiors in the military about his mental health," and that "he was abusive in their relationship."
In its initial response to the national outrage over the shooting, ICE issued a temporary pause on traffic stops, but in less than 24 hours, President Donald Trump ordered the policy reversed and the stops to resume.