WATERVILLE — When Jerzy Wieczorek’s parents moved their young family from Poland to the United States, fleeing Soviet rule, he said they dreamed of democracy.

“We could live in a country where the police are not running wild in the streets, and you can trust that your vote counts, and where you can trust that the corruption is minimal, and your representatives are actually there to represent you,” Wieczorek said Tuesday. “All these things that have seemed to fall apart, in the last year and a half especially.”

Wieczorek was one of about 85 people who gathered in Elm Plaza to protest the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26. Guerrero was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Monday in Biddeford. He was driving and was not the target of an arrest warrant officials were executing.

Wieczorek said he fears for his three young children, especially his daughter, who is nonverbal.

“It’s scary to think that there are people out there, with guns, who are allegedly protecting us, but are not asking questions,” Wieczorek said. “They shoot first, ask later.”

Protesters described rage, heartbreak, fear and sadness in the aftermath of the shooting.

The event is a weekly protest by Indivisible Mid Maine, which usually draws around 25 participants. The crowd at Tuesday’s protest, which was dedicated to Guerrero’s killing, included more young people and new protesters than normal, organizer Elizabeth Leonard said.

Protesters held signs featuring names of people who died in ICE custody or at the hands of ICE agents since January 2025.

As protesters waved signs and hands at passing cars, they got mostly positive honks from drivers. But some also yelled in counter protest. Leonard said one person chanted “ICE, ICE baby” as he drove by.

Protesters said they’ve been shaken to see arguments about Guerrero’s killing breaking out on social media, with many commenters defending ICE.

“Are they trolls or bots? Are they real people?” Wieczorek said. “I’m terrified if those are my fellow humans, who think it’s fine for the police to shoot someone in the face with no accountability. They’re not supposed to be judge, jury and executioner.”

Wieczorek, Leonard and others also said the killing feels close to home.

“Maine is a state that’s really like a small town,” Leonard said. “It feels like it’s our town.”

But outrage at the protest was not limited to area residents. Megary Sigler, 49, and Jen McCann, 48, were on vacation from Baltimore, visiting family in the Waterville area when Guerrero was killed. They brought their children to the protest, saying they felt like they needed to do something. Their children agreed.

“It’s important for me to have a future in a place that I can actually see myself living and that has neighbors who aren’t just the same people over and over,” Finn Sigler-McCann, 17, said. “I want to see diversity where I live.”

Elayne Richard, 72, protests with Indivisible Mid Maine regularly. She’s been going to protests since she was in college, and she said it’s often joyful trying to show people what’s good about democracy.

“I think today people are so mad they’re beside themselves,” Richard said. “It makes me speechless. For 50 years, I have not been speechless, and this is making me speechless.”

Similar protests are being organized across central Maine. In Hallowell, around 75 people gathered Monday evening at Granite City Park.

The crowd held signs and sang songs, including “We Shall Overcome” and “Singing For Our Lives,” said Dale McCormick, a former state senator, state treasurer and Augusta city councilor who attended the protest. They also marched along Water Street, with the crowd stretching a block and a half.

“I’m feeling incredibly sad, and I’m fearful,” McCormick said. “It’s really scary. I felt good about being here and saying out loud ‘This is wrong, we’ve got to do away with ICE.'”

Betsy Sweet, a local political advocate and activist, organized the protest and spoke at the event.

“To have 75 people show up, I think speaks to how hungry people are to connect and be together and be in community in the face of such tragedy,” Sweet said Tuesday.

Karen Heck, a former Waterville mayor, attended the Hallowell and Waterville protests. She said Wednesday she was motivated by rage, tremendous sadness and horror.

Heck said she knows immigrants in Waterville who are scared to go out, and she’s angry with Maine’s representatives for not doing more to stop ICE. She called both the Democratic and Republican parties complicit, singling out Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King.

In Waterville, Wieczorek played the trombone as protesters cheered, laughed and cried.

In Hallowell, a large bald eagle flew over the protest. Sweet said it felt symbolic.

Staff Writer Sara Coughlin contributed to this report.