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4 people have been killed this year in shootings by federal agents linked to Trump’s immigration crackdown

FATAL MAINE; HOUSTON ICE SHOOTINGS RENEW SCRUTINY (930pE)

(CNN) — In an uncanny echo of the recent past, a Mexican immigrant who had lived in Texas for 35 years and a young Colombian father halfway across the country in Maine were killed days apart in shootings at the hands of immigration agents.

While the shootings this month are still in their investigative infancy, they are a grim callback to January and the separate killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota when each encountered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities.

Within a week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, became the third and fourth people to have been fatally wounded by federal immigration agents this year as President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda has led to immigration enforcement crackdowns resulting in not only arrests and removals, but also violence and death.

Here’s what we know about the four people killed this year by federal agents involved in immigration enforcement activities and other shootings in which agents opened fire:

Renee Good

Good, a 37-year-old US citizen, was killed on January 7 when an ICE agent shot into her vehicle in Minneapolis.

The mother of three had been participating in demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge dubbed Operation Metro Surge and stopped her burgundy SUV for a few minutes on a snowy residential Minneapolis street, obstructing the flow of traffic. When Good began pulling forward, an ICE officer standing in front of her vehicle pulled his weapon and fired at least three shots into the car, killing her.

Alex Pretti

Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who treated veterans, was shot and killed on January 24 by federal immigration agents.

Video of the encounter shows Pretti sought to aid a woman shoved to the ground by an immigration agent, getting pushed to the ground himself as he and others get into a physical skirmish with a group of agents before at least two eventually opened fire.

A federal agent was seen on video removing a handgun from Pretti’s waistband moments before he was killed.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo

The 52-year-old Mexican immigrant had been picking up members of his construction crew in Houston when he encountered ICE agents during a traffic stop and was fatally shot on July 7.

ICE issued a public statement saying its officers “attempted to conduct a vehicle stop as part of a targeted enforcement operation to arrest an illegal alien” and said Salgado Araujo attempted to evade them. The agency alleges he “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” which led to an officer firing his weapon in self-defense.”

A lawyer for two of the passengers in the van at the time of the shooting denied Salgado Araujo attempted to ram officers and disputed the officers were in danger. But no video has surfaced depicting the moment of the shooting.

Joan Sebastian Guerrero

Joan Sebastian Guerrero, who was identified by his neighbor as a 26-year-old husband and father from Colombia, was shot and killed by a federal agent on July 13 in Biddeford, Maine, while officers were conducting a traffic stop, the Department of Homeland Security said.

In a statement issued nearly 12 hours after the incident, DHS said the federal agent fired his weapon “fearing for public safety” as the victim “attempted to flee the scene.” The department did not share details on why the officer believed Guerrero was a public safety risk.

Maine Sen. Angus King’s office said Guerrero was “NOT the target” of the immigration operation, while the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said Guerrero was authorized to work in the US and had been issued a social security number.

Non-fatal shootings

  • January 8, 2026: A Border Patrol agent shot two people during a traffic stop in Portland, Oregon, and officials say they were associated with a Venezuelan gang. The driver, Luis David Nino-Moncada, was charged with aggravated assault of a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon, according to the Department of Justice. He later pleaded guilty, according to CNN affiliate KGW.
  • January 14, 2026: Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg through the front door of a Minneapolis home by an ICE agent following his cousin. The agent was later charged with four counts of second-degree assault, one count of falsely reporting a crime in connection with the shooting. It’s one of several cases in which the US government’s account of a shooting involving a federal immigration agent has fallen apart after later scrutiny.
  • January 21, 2026: A Department of Homeland Security officer shot at a Salvadoran immigrant in Los Angeles County, who officials say attempted to evade arrest and who officials allege was involved in human smuggling operation and had a criminal record. A Customs and Border Protection officer was injured, DHS said.
  • April 7, 2026: A man was shot in California’s Central Valley following a traffic stop in which ICE agents fired at him as he allegedly tried to flee. Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and one count of destruction of government property.
  • June 15, 2026: An ICE agent fired his weapon when Eduardo Cruz Garcia allegedly attempted to flee a traffic stop in New Jersey. The driver was charged with assault and injuring a federal officer after hitting a federal agent with a van, according to a criminal complaint.
  • July 1, 2026: An ICE agent fired his weapon during a traffic stop in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as they attempted to arrest Clemente Lara-Hernandez. The Mexican national had a criminal history and fled after ramming into an ICE vehicle, the agency told CNN.

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Kohberger says he wants to withdraw plea and face trial for murder of Idaho college students

(CNN) — Bryan Kohberger, the man convicted of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, is seeking to take back his guilty plea, saying he was “convinced to falsely confess,” according to court documents filed Monday.Kohberger filed a petition to reopen the case and blamed his plea on “threats,” “false promises” and wrong information.A post-conviction relief form was filed Monday in Idaho, court filings show.Citing “ineffective assistance of counsel during criminal proceedings,” Kohberger said his defense team did not disclose or review exculpatory evidence.He also claims he was given a “gross misrepresentation” of what a life sentence and death row in Idaho would look like.After previously pleading not guilty, Kohberger agreed to enter a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.The New York Times first reported the petition after interviewing Kohberger in prison.Ethan Chapin, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Madison Mogen, 21, were fatally stabbed in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in Moscow, Idaho, authorities said.Kohberger was convicted last July after entering a guilty plea, during which he publicly admitted to the four killings for the first time.In a stunning hearing a year ago, Kohberger admitted to killing the students.“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Judge Steven Hippler asked at the time.“Yes,” Kohberger replied.He was then sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.As part of his plea, Kohberger waived the right to appeal, but that does not preclude him from filing a new case challenging the validity of his plea agreement.“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” Kohberger said in a statement provided to The New York Times.The office of Anne Taylor, one of Kohberger’s attorneys at the time of his plea deal, declined to comment.The Latah County Prosecutor’s Office is also not commenting citing “pending litigation.”Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said in a statement to CNN that his office is “ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure justice is fully carried out.”“My heart goes out to the families of Madison, Kaylee, Xana, and Ethan, who have already endured unimaginable loss and now must face today’s deeply painful news,” the statement read.CNN has reached out to the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office.On Monday, after learning of the court filing, the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of four students killed, called Kohberger “the mosquito you just can’t seem to swat.”“He did this after deciding not to leave his fate and the facts of the case up to a jury to decide his guilt,” the family said in a statement on Facebook, noting Kohberger “never cried wolf or claimed he was uninformed, pressured, or that there were issues with the discovery.”“He admitted to guilt and asked whether he actually was guilty he said ‘yes,’” the family said.The family said they welcome a trial. “We are confident he will get the death penalty that he escaped by pleading guilty the first time around,” they said.“Regardless of how this turns out, our family is 100% ready,” the statement read.Kohberger, a PhD student of criminology at nearby Washington State University, was charged with killing the four students in January 2023.He was arrested in Pennsylvania more than a month after the stabbings in the small college town shocked the nation. Forensic DNA testing from trash collected outside his family’s home gave Idaho law enforcement the probable cause to take him into custody.Prosecutors had submitted a variety of evidence they say tied Kohberger to the crimes, including DNA found on a knife sheath on a bed close to Mogen. The single source profile was determined to be male and detectives matched it to Kohberger through investigative genetic genealogy.As they prepared for trial, Kohberger’s defense attorneys said he was out driving alone on the night of the killings.The case was delayed numerous times, including by a change of venue, frustrating the victims’ families before Kohberger ultimately pleaded guilty.This story has been updated with additional information.CNN’s Linh Tran, Jack Hannah and Jean Casarez contributed to this report.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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