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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) has issued a statement next to video that shows the moments leading up to the fatal shooting of a US citizen by an immigration officer in Texas last year.
Video obtained by Newsweek and other media outlets shows Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, in his car 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) said an ICE officer had fired at Martinez in a "defensive shot" after he had "accelerated forward" and "intentionally ran over" another agent.
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However, in a statement shared with Newsweek on Friday afternoon, Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm, attorneys for Martinez's mother, Rachel Reyes, said the footage called into question ICE's account.
"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 attorneys said.
"This batch of evidence shows no justification for Ruben’s killing. Still, our pursuit of full transparency will continue until we have all the facts. We, and the public, have yet to see all of the evidence held by the government."
ICE issued a statement on X while sharing a CBS News report accompanying the video which said it "appears to contradict claims by federal officials that Martinez was shot by an ICE agent because he ‘accelerated’ and ‘intentionally ran over’ another agent."
The outlet said that the blue Ford Fusion that Martinez was in was stationary or going slowly, when he was fatally shot and when gunshots are heard, the brake lights of Martinez' vehicle appear to be on.
Last month a Texas grand jury declined to return criminal indictments in the case. But ICE referred to the Texas court ruling in posting "we stand by the grand jury’s unanimous decision that found no criminality," adding that the incident was investigated from every possible angle by an independent body, "and it cleared our officer." ICE said the investigation showed that Martinez was holding a bottle of whiskey and "rolling toward" an officer.
Alcohol and marijuana were detected in Martinez's system but Joshua Orta, who was inside the car at the time, wrote in a declaration that Martinez did not hit an officer with his vehicle, claiming a federal agent fired into the driver's side window without warning. Orta was killed in February in an unrelated car accident.
The body camera video is taken behind the car, and so it is unclear whether any officers were hit by the vehicle. Martinez's mother Rachel Reyes had previously told CBS News she did not blame President Donald Trump for her son's death, but said that something regarding "the pattern of violence or abuse and impunity" needed to be changed.
It comes amid controversy over the Trump administration's immigration raids in Minneapolis, following the fatal shooting of two other US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during confrontations a couple of weeks apart in Minnesota.
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