Body Camera Footage Reveals New Details in Border Patrol Shooting of Chicago Woman Marimar Martinez
- ICE Abuse
- Feb 12
- 3 min read
(Warning: Sensitive subject matter)
Body camera footage, text messages and other records released Tuesday provide new insight into last year’s shooting of Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen who was struck five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago in October.
The materials were made public by the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago after a federal judge ordered their release. Among them are text messages in which the agent who fired the shots, Charles Exum, boasted to colleagues in a group chat: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.” In another message sharing a news article about the shooting, he wrote, “Read it. 5 shots, 7 holes.”
Exum was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting. Video from another agent’s camera captures the moments immediately before and after the gunfire from inside Exum’s vehicle.
Martinez had been driving to donate clothes to a church when she noticed immigration enforcement vehicles in her neighborhood. She began honking and shouting “La Migra” to alert others.
Martinez later said an agent swerved into her lane. After she stopped her car, she recalled that time seemed to slow. At first, she believed she had been hit by pepper balls. Then she heard her rear passenger window shatter and felt bullets strike her body.
“I saw my life flash before me and slowly began to think, ‘This is the end of me,’” she testified before Congress last week.
In the body camera footage, agents can be seen with their guns drawn. One agent says, “It’s time to get aggressive and get the f--- out, because they’re trying to box us in.”
“We’re going to make contact, and we’re boxed in,” another agent says.
Exum is then seen sharply turning the steering wheel to the left. The video captures what appears to be a collision. Exum exits the vehicle, and seconds later, five gunshots can be heard off camera.
Additional records show Exum describing what he called “big time” support after the shooting. When asked whether colleagues had been supportive, he responded: “Everyone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself … according to Bovino,” referring to former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
In an email sent hours after the shooting, Bovino wrote to Exum offering to extend his retirement eligibility beyond age 57, citing his “excellent service in Chicago.”
At a news conference Wednesday, Martinez’s attorney, Chris Parente, said public access to the materials was critical so that “people can actually see the real evidence, as opposed to the false claims by our government.” After a judge ruled the texts could be made public, Parente said the messages reflected conduct that “is not what this country stands for.”
Government attorneys have said that federal prosecutors in South Bend, Indiana, are investigating the shooting. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson confirmed that Exum has been placed on administrative leave.
Martinez’s case became one of the more high-profile examples of federal authorities accusing civilians of ramming vehicles driven by immigration agents. Prosecutors ultimately moved to dismiss the charges against her, and the case was dropped with prejudice.
Testifying on Capitol Hill last week, Martinez said she believed she was going to die after being shot.
“The mental scars will always be there as a reminder of the time my own government attempted to execute me, and when they failed, they chose to vilify me,” she told lawmakers.
She also invoked the names of others killed by immigration law enforcement personnel.
“I am Renee Good. I am Alex Pretti. I am Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. I am Keith Porter. They should all be here today,” she said, referring to two U.S. citizens killed in Minneapolis, a Mexican immigrant shot in Chicago and a man fatally shot by an off-duty ICE officer in California.
