The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot a man in Maine this week has a history of mental illness and violent behavior, the Associated Press reported.

The agent, identified as David Brouillette,37, has a history of “terrifying and violent behavior” and should have never been given a gun, relatives told the AP.

Ashley Brouillette, his ex-wife, said she divorced him in 2009, after just two years of marriage, because he had become physically violent with her.

She recalled an incident where Brouillette threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child. She said the abuse continued after their marriage ended.

Brouillette’s second ex-wife filed several complaints with a family court detailing years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse on behalf of herself and his daughters. The ex-wife alleged that he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, the AP reported, citing multiple requests for temporary protection orders.

Brouillette allegedly tackled his teenage daughter, smashed spaghetti in her hair, and dragged her around the house as she cried, his second ex-wife said. A judge granted the request for a temporary protective order on behalf of his daughter in 2021.

“I watched my dad struggle a lot with a lot of things,” Brouillette’s oldest daughter told the AP. She recalled coming home from school one day, and he told her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head.

“If you don’t really, truly take care of yourself, there’s no way you can protect other people. And with my dad, he never wanted to get help,” she said.

An immediate relative described Brouillette as “extremely mentally ill.” The relative added that he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child and was hospitalized multiple times after trying to commit suicide.

Brouillette served in the army in Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013, which destroyed him.

“Afghanistan destroyed him — trained him to be a killing monster, a machine,” the relative said. “They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.”

After he was discharged from the Army in 2015, Brouillette worked several jobs, including some related to law enforcement.

Brouilette joined ICE in late 2025. Because of his mental health issues, Ashley was skeptical when he told her he was hired by the agency.

Around that time, he left her a disturbing voicemail saying she and the women in her family should have their throats cut.

“And all of you should have your f——–g throats cut,” the voicemail said, according to AP. “Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I’m gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f——-g throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep.”

Ashley Brouillette thought he was having a mental health episode and cut off contact with him. She didn’t realize he was actually hired by ICE until this week, when videos began circulating online following the deadly shooting in Maine.

On Monday, Brouillette shot and killed Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Guerrero was a 25-year-old father from Colombia who was authorized to work in the US and was issued a Social Security number, the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said.

He wasn’t the target of the immigration operation, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said.

Brouillette reportedly admitted to associates that he killed Guerrero, but claimed it was in self-defense.