Ex-Wife of ICE Agent in Maine Shooting Says She Always Feared His Violence

The second ex-wife of a federal immigration agent in Maine spoke out publicly on Saturday about years of abuse she says she suffered at his hands. Lucinda Brouillette released a written statement saying she believes her former husband, David Brouillette, is fully capable of extreme violence. Her comments came after David Brouillette was identified as the ICE agent who fatally shot a Colombian immigrant named Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero on Monday. Durán Guerrero was shot outside his family's apartment in Biddeford, Maine, and was not the target of the immigration operation that day.

Lucinda Brouillette said her belief in David Brouillette's capacity for violence comes from her own personal experiences living with him. 'If you were to ask me whether I believe David Brouillette is capable of this level of extreme violence, my answer is unequivocally yes,' she wrote. She said she had feared for a long time that his anger and behavior would lead to something very serious. She added that she often thought she would be the one hurt by him.

David Brouillette is an Army veteran and a former police officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Maine. He has not responded to requests for comment from reporters, and a phone number listed for him was out of service on Saturday. Federal officials have not publicly named him as the shooter, but his identity has been widely reported this week.

David Brouillette's first ex-wife, Ashley Brouillette, also spoke out recently. She told reporters that he had choked her, slammed her to the floor, and once threw boiling water on her. She also said he called her on Wednesday and admitted he fired his weapon during the immigration operation, saying it was justified because the driver was coming toward him.

The shooting has caused a lot of public anger and debate. Officials said agents tried to stop a car after a person they were looking for left a home in a vehicle, and an agent fired his weapon saying he feared for public safety when the driver did not stop. Officials have confirmed that Durán Guerrero was not the person they were trying to arrest.

Lucinda Brouillette filed paperwork in court just two days before releasing her statement. In that filing, she asked a judge for a protective order, saying David Brouillette had threatened to kill her with a gun. Court records show she had made many similar requests over several years, but a Maine judge denied her most recent request, saying there was not enough evidence to show she was in immediate danger.

Court records show a long pattern of troubling behavior by David Brouillette. In a 2019 filing, Lucinda Brouillette wrote that he would show up at her home and workplace without warning, smashed her phone, broke her door frame, and threw her clothes into a river. She wrote that because he was a police officer, she felt there was nothing she could do about it. In January 2020, she reported that he had called her nearly 200 times in just two days.

She also wrote about how his behavior affected their daughter. She said the girl would return from weekend visits with David Brouillette in tears because of emotional and verbal abuse. In one incident, he dumped a plate of spaghetti on his daughter's hair, and when the girl asked him to stop, Lucinda Brouillette wrote that 'he tackled her.' She said he needed help for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

In her public statement, Lucinda Brouillette said she hopes her story helps others recognize warning signs of abuse. 'If there is one thing I hope comes from sharing my experience, it is that patterns of abuse, coercive control, intimidation, and manipulation are recognized and taken seriously before they escalate,' she wrote. She also asked that people respect her family's privacy during this difficult time.

She described how David Brouillette often talked about his military intelligence background and told her he could manipulate and deceive people. Whether or not those claims were true, she said they created an environment of fear that made her feel powerless. She said she felt validated now that others with direct knowledge of his behavior have also spoken out publicly.