Body camera video released Tuesday shows the moments before and after the 2025 shooting of Marimar Martinez in Chicago. Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago last year after she was accused of using her car to attack federal law enforcement, a case that was later dismissed in November, NBC News reported.Martinez’s attorneys say the Border Patrol agent who shot Martinez five times, Charles Exum, was not wearing a body camera during the incident. Another agent’s body camera video showed agents in the car with their weapons drawn and one of the agents saying, “It’s time to be aggressive, get out because they’re trying to trap us in there.”“We want to connect but we’re stuck,” said another.Exum was then seen turning the steering wheel quickly to the left, followed by an apparent impact.Exum got out of the car and shortly after, five gunshots were heard off camera.
SMS has been published
Text messages from Exum show him describing the “significant” support he received after the shooting. In response to a text message asking people for their support, he wrote: “According to Bovino, everyone including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sheriff Noem and Jeff himself…” referring to former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol Captain Michael Banks and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “El Jefe” means “The Boss” in Spanish.Hours after the shooting, former Border Patrol Chief Bovino, who has since been removed from his post and returned to his post in El Centro, California, wrote to Exum in an email: “I would like to make an offer to you to extend your retirement age beyond 57. … In light of your outstanding service in Chicago, you still have a lot to do!!”“This evidence conclusively disproves Ms. Martinez’s false narrative,” Martinez and her attorneys said in a statement Tuesday afternoon before the evidence was released to the public. Martinez was by no means the victim of a horrific violent crime. “Martinez’s attorney, Chris Parent, said at a news conference Wednesday that it was critical to publicly release materials related to the case so “people can actually see the real evidence instead of the false claims made by our government.”“Most people stop fighting when criminal charges are dismissed, but to have your own government call you someone as hurtful and harmful as a domestic terrorist when you know you are not a domestic terrorist is unacceptable,” he said.“The evidence Marimar obtained in this case shows you how the agency handled the shooting immediately after it happened, and it’s horrific,” he said.Parent defended Martinez, a Montessori school teacher with no criminal record who was on her way to donate clothes at church when she encountered immigration officials.“This man, after he shot a woman who was doing nothing, was going to text his friends, joke about it, brag about it, ‘put it in your book,'” Parent told reporters after a federal judge ruled Friday that the text messages could be released publicly.“That’s not what this country stands for,” he said.Exum’s text messages were the subject of a previous court hearing, with records showing he wrote in a group chat with other agents: “I fired 5 rounds, she put 7 holes. Put that in your book, kids.” In another message, he shared a news article about the shooting and wrote, “Read it. 5 shots, 7 holes.”Prosecutors in South Bend, Indiana, are investigating the shooting, government lawyers told the court. A Customs and Border Protection spokesman said Exum is on administrative leave “consistent with policy.”After charges against Martinez were dropped due to bias, her legal team said the fatal shootings of Renee Goode and Alex Pretty in Minneapolis gave them a renewed sense of urgency to show the American people how DHS leaders respond to officer-involved shootings.“We know what’s going on behind the scenes, and it’s horrific, and it’s going to continue to happen in city after city when the bosses of these Border Patrol agents take action immediately after a shooting,” Parent said.
What is Martinez charged with?
Martinez was charged with assault and obstructing federal law enforcement using her car, charges that were later dismissed in November. The charges were dropped after federal prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the case.Her case is one of the most high-profile examples of federal authorities accusing a civilian of ramming a vehicle driven by an immigration agent.Martinez gave emotional testimony last week at a forum organized by Democratic senators on Capitol Hill about her experience, calling herself a survivor of a Department of Homeland Security shooting and then immediately labeling her a “domestic terrorist.”
