An attorney representing the family of a Colombian immigrant fatally shot last month by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine, sharply criticized comments by Vice President JD Vance that tied the killing to immigration-related drug enforcement efforts.

Vance, at a visit Monday to a defense contractor in Brewer, Maine, appeared to suggest that the death of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during a traffic stop on July 13 was part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on the illicit fentanyl trade, which administration officials have linked to illegal immigration.

“When I look at the case, what I see is a country that’s trying to enforce its laws, and it hasn’t for a long time,” Vance said, adding that Democrats are “far more worried about a shooting involving an illegal alien than they are about the fact that tens of thousands of Mainers died from fentanyl overdoses by that poison brought into our community.”

“My message to Democrats who are so worried about that situation is to say, have a little bit of perspective,” he continued.

But Benjamin Gideon, part of the legal team representing Durán Guerrero’s partner and young daughter, pushed back Tuesday, saying “nobody — not DHS or ICE” has linked Durán Guerrero to the illicit drug trade.

“The vice president’s suggestion that killing Johan Sebastián was justified or acceptable as a cost of addressing the illicit fentanyl trade is completely disingenuous and purposefully misleading,” he said in a statement.

Gideon also questioned the accuracy of Vance’s assertion that “tens of thousands” of Maine residents have died from fentanyl overdoses. He noted that Maine recorded 7,600 drug-induced deaths over a period of nearly 30 years — from 1997 to 2025 — from all drugs combined, not just fentanyl. He also said overdose deaths in the state were falling significantly (by nearly 16 percent in 2023 and another 19 percent in 2024) before Trump’s immigration crackdown.

In his comments, Vance acknowledged that Durán Guerrero was not the target of any investigation. He said, however, that immigration agents felt “the person they were trying to arrest … posed a danger to the community” after Durán Guerrero allegedly tried to leave the scene.

Witnesses to the shooting said they heard Durán Guerrero, gravely injured and dragged from the car, tell immigration agents, “I tried to stop.”

“In his answer, the Vice President identified no weapon, no violent crime committed by Johan Sebastián, and no specific threat of death or serious physical injury,” Gideon said, noting that Department of Homeland Security policy limits the use of deadly force by immigration agents.

Vance also referred to a federal investigation, saying that Democrats are “being dishonest if they say we’re not investigating that case.”

Federal officials have previously said the FBI responded to the scene and the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office was notified immediately after the shooting.

But Gideon said federal officials have yet to contact Durán Guerrero’s family or their legal team about the shooting.

“No federal agency has identified to the family what component is conducting the investigation, what its scope is, or who is leading it,” he said.

Vance suggested that such an investigation would determine whether criminal charges are warranted and whether allegations against the agents are “actually legitimate.”

“Everybody is entitled to their case, not in the court of public opinion, but a court trial by their juries — an actual, real investigation — if that’s what ultimately happens,” he said.

David Brouillette, the ICE agent identified as the agent who shot and killed Durán Guerrero, has been accused of volatile and threatening behavior toward friends and family, including allegations of domestic violence against his former wives, which advocates say should have prevented him from being hired as an ICE agent.

A visa application for Durán Guerrero’s family, signed by Maine’s attorney general to certify they were victims of a crime, suggests that state authorities are also investigating under two criminal statutes: murder and manslaughter.

Vance’s comments also drew a sharp response from Maine Democrats. US Representative Chellie Pingree described Vance’s comments as “callous, smug, and offensive.” And Troy Jackson, a Senate candidate challenging Republican Susan Collins, called the vice president a “dirtbag.”

“We lost a person that JD Vance seems to not give a [expletive] about,” Jackson said. “That should piss us all off.”

Federal officials previously described the Biddeford operation, conducted outside Durán Guerrero’s apartment, as “targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal.”

But Maine lawmakers have contradicted that account, saying neither Durán Guerrero nor his roommate, whom ICE appeared to be targeting, had a final order of removal.

Officials have not commented further on the identity of the target, the purpose of the operation, or why they attempted to stop the car Durán Guerrero was driving.

Material from previous Globe coverage was used.

Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.