Newly released body camera footage shows the chaotic moments leading up to the fatal shooting of a US citizen by an immigration officer in Texas last year, which only recently came to light.
Gunfire rings out in the nighttime footage when Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, pulls his car forwards as law enforcement try to stop him on 15 March 2025 in the beach community of South Padre Island.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not publicly disclose an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer killed Martinez until the detail emerged in media last month.
DHS have said Martinez “accelerated forward” and “intentionally ran over” an agent, causing another agent to fire “defensive shots”.
Martinez is believed to be the first of three US citizens who have been fatally shot by federal immigration agents during President Donald Trump’s second term.
But unlike in the other two cases, Martinez was not protesting – he was driving by the scene of a road accident where ICE officers were helping to direct traffic.
Attorneys for Martinez’s family said the new evidence “calls ICE’s official account of a fatal shooting into question”.
Texas officials had previously declined to release footage to media of the incident with Martinez.
But on Friday, dozens of body camera videos, evidence and reports from the investigation were made public by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The footage shows different angles from local police officers’ body cameras of the incident.
In one clip, Martinez is seen rolling down the window of the blue Ford Fusion he was driving to talk with an agent.
His car then advances slowly towards an intersection.
An officer can be heard shouting: “Where is he going?”
Martinez appears to slow down before slightly turning his car and pulling forwards as law enforcement shout at him. Gunshots ring out.
The body camera video is taken from a few yards behind the car, and so it is unclear whether any officers were hit by the vehicle.
The grainy footage appears to show someone positioned towards the front of the vehicle as it begins to swing left just before Martinez is shot.
Alcohol and marijuana were detected in Martinez’s system, according to posthumous toxicology tests cited by the BBC’s US partner CBS.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officer who was at the scene says in an internal report that a blue car came to a stop “at the feet of an unknown Homeland Security Investigations Agent”.
The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit is a part of ICE, overseen by DHS.
The report alleges that another agent was trying to open the door of the blue car when the driver began to pull forward to the left, hitting an agent.
“At this time HSI Agent 1, who was in front of the car initially, appeared to be on the hood of the vehicle,” says the report.
It also states that another agent began to shout at the driver to stop the car, before drawing his weapon and firing “what sounded like 3 shots” into the driver’s side window.
In a statement, Charles Stam and Alex Stamm, attorneys for Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, said: “These new videos confirm that Ruben’s car was barely moving when he was shot.
“That he was braking, not accelerating. That nobody was on the hood of his car. That nobody was in front of his car when he was shot.
“That he was shot at point-blank range through his side window by an ICE agent who was in no danger.”
The BBC has contacted DHS for comment.
Last month, a Texas grand jury declined to indict the federal agent who shot Martinez.
A passenger who was inside the car with Martinez has also disputed the federal government’s account.
Joshua Orta, a friend of Martinez, wrote in a draft declaration obtained by US media that Martinez did not hit an officer with his vehicle.
He said he and Martinez had just had “a few drinks” and attended a party before the fatal shooting.
Orta said upon arriving at the scene, an officer told them to “turn around and leave”. A Texas Ranger saw an open container of alcohol in the vehicle, Orta said.
He claimed a federal agent later fired into the driver’s side window without warning. Orta died last month in an unrelated car accident.
Last month, Martinez’s mother – who voted for Trump in 2024 – said she had not received any videos, evidence or reports related to her son’s killing.
“I don’t blame President Trump for the death of my son, ’cause he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger,” Reyes told CBS in February.
“But I do think that something needs to be changed in that department as far as the pattern of violence or abuse and impunity.”
In January, immigration officers fatally shot two other US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during confrontations a couple of weeks apart in Minnesota, sparking nationwide demonstrations.
The two were protesting against the Trump administration’s immigration raids in the city of Minneapolis.
By BBC News
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