‘How Many Other Killings Are They Concealing?’
Jessica
Corbett for Common Dreams
“While Martinez’s death was reported in local media at the
time, the reports did not identify HSI involvement or disclose that a federal agent fired the shots through the
driver-side window,” Newsweek reported, citing publicly available information and records obtained by American Oversight through the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
“It shouldn’t take 11 months and a FOIA lawsuit to learn
that the government killed someone,” American Oversight said on social media late
Friday. Separately, the watchdog noted that “the details sound similar to the death of
Renee Good,” a 37-year-old US citizen and mother of three fatally
shot by officer Jonathan Ross last month in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Good’s killing, and two Customs and Border Protection
agents’ subsequent fatal shooting of 37-year-old US citizen and nurse
Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, have fueled outrage over President Donald Trump’s
mass deportation agenda, resulting in a congressional funding fight that
has partially shut down the US
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees both agencies.
ICE’s internal report on the Texas shooting states that HSI
agents were helping redirect traffic at the site of a major accident early on
March 15, 2025. Martinez and his passengers aren’t named, but the document
claims that the driver of a blue four-door Ford “failed to follow
instructions,” including verbal commands to stop and exit the vehicle.
Instead, the driver “accelerated forward, striking a HSI
special agent who wound up on the hood of the vehicle. Upon observing this, HSI
group supervisory special agent utilized his government-issued service weapon,
discharging multiple rounds at the driver through the open driver’s side
window,” according to the ICE report—a version of events that a DHS
spokesperson echoed in a Friday statement added to the Newsweek article,
which was initially published Wednesday.
The DHS spokesperson also said that the incident remains
under investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Ranger Division,
whose press secretary, Sheridan Nolen, confirmed that “this is still an active
investigation by the Texas Rangers, and no other information is currently
available.”
Charles Stam, a lawyer for the Martinez family, told the New York Times that
the 23-year-old was the driver in the ICE report. Stam and another attorney,
Alex Stamm, also said in a statement that eyewitness accounts of the scene
don’t match the document.
“It is critical that there is a full and fair investigation
into why HSI was present at the scene of a traffic collision and why a federal
officer shot and killed a US citizen as he was trying to comply with
instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic,” the
lawyers said.
The Times also reached Martinez’s mother,
Rachel Reyes, who said her son worked at an Amazon warehouse in San Antonio and
was out to celebrate his birthday. According to her: “He was a good kid. He
doesn’t have a criminal history... He never got in trouble. He was never
violent.”
Reyes challenged the federal government’s narrative about
her son, telling the newspaper: “What they’re saying is different from what
they told the family, so that’s adding insult to injury... They are making it
sound different. I don’t appreciate their language.”
In a Friday interview with the Texas Tribune,
American Oversight executive director Chioma Chukwu also called out the government: “What they’re telling the
public is very different than what they’re doing behind closed doors. The only
reason why we’re able to make these connections and really call into question
the public statements that they’re making to mislead the public is because
we’re able to get our hands on these documents... That should deeply concern
everyone.”
The revelations this week have generated concern. André
Treiber, the Democratic National Committee’s Youth Coordinating Council
chair, wrote on social media Friday evening that “ICE
murdered a Texan last March and we are only just learning about it now. They
are once again offering the excuse that this was done in self-defense, but
forgive me if I am extremely skeptical after they’ve been caught lying about
that exact same thing multiple times already.”
Federal lawmakers also sounded the alarm on Friday.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) declared that
“Americans deserve immediate answers and an independent investigation of the
shooting.” Another Texas Democrat, Congressman Joaquin Castro, similarly called for
“a full investigation,” including into the monthslong “cover-up.”
US Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), whose Chicagoland district
has also faced a recent ICE invasion, pointed to other deaths tied to the agency, including
those of Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, who was shot by ICE in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park
last September; Keith Porter Jr., who was shot by an off-duty agent on New Year’s Eve in Los
Angeles, California; and Linda Davis, a special education teacher in Savannah,
Georgia, who was killed in a Monday car crash that involved a man
fleeing ICE.
“For a whole year, DHS hid that they murdered Ruben, a young
man in Texas, after a traffic stop. Just like they did with Silverio, Renee,
Keith, Alex, and Linda, they lied and avoided accountability,” said Ramirez,
who supports abolishing ICE. “How many more people have to be
executed before my colleagues realize that reforms are not enough?”
