Footage shows shooting of US citizen by immigration agent in 2025
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Body camera footage released on March 6 did not clearly show Mr Martinez striking an officer with his car.
SCREENGRABS: NEWSWEEK/X
WASHINGTON - The authorities in Texas released police footage on March 6 showing the moment a US citizen was shot dead by a federal immigration agent in the state in 2025, months before the high-profile killings of two Americans in Minneapolis.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not publicly acknowledge its involvement in the March 2025 shooting death of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez
Mr Martinez is believed to be the first of three US citizens known to have been shot and killed by federal immigration agents during President Donald Trump’s second term.
DHS officials have described the shooting in South Padre Island as a defensive action. The internal agency memo, reviewed by AFP, alleged Mr Martinez ignored commands from officers to stop his car and instead accelerated, “striking a (Homeland Security Investigations) special agent who wound up on the hood of the vehicle”.
The memo said a DHS agent shot “multiple rounds at the driver through the open driver’s side window”.
An incident report filed by the South Padre Island Police Department said Mr Martinez’s vehicle “intentionally collided with a Federal agent”.
Body camera footage released on March 6 by the Texas Department of Public Safety did not clearly show Mr Martinez striking an officer with his car. In one video, the car’s brake lights appear to be on when three shots are heard.
The footage shows police pulling Mr Martinez from the car after he was shot, placing him on the ground and handcuffing him.
Another video shows the car’s passenger Joshua Orta telling investigators he believed his friend Mr Martinez “panicked” when the pair drove up to the officers at the scene of a traffic accident, noting they had been drinking that night.
Mr Orta said the vehicle was “barely moving” moments before the shots were fired, adding the vehicle “caught (the agent’s) feet”.
“I know he didn’t mean to hurt no officer. He wouldn’t do nothing like that,” Mr Orta said of Mr Martinez.
Mr Orta died in an unrelated car accident in San Antonio on Feb 21, US media reported.
Attorneys for Mr Martinez’s mother told media this week that the newly released videos “confirm that Ruben’s car was barely moving when he was shot”.
In February, a Texas grand jury declined to indict the agent who shot Mr Martinez.
Details about the federal involvement in Mr Martinez’s death were revealed as part of a records request by American Oversight, a non-profit government watchdog group.
The shooting came about 10 months before immigration agents shot dead Ms Renee Good and Mr Alex Pretti, both US citizens, during Mr Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Those killings sparked weeks of nationwide protest
Mr Trump on March 5 fired his DHS secretary Kristi Noem
