Attorneys for Ruben Ray Martinez’s family said the new evidence “shows no justification” for his March 2025 killing.
SAN ANTONIO — Eleven months after a federal immigration agent fatally shot a young San Antonio man visiting South Padre Island – igniting a new wave of calls for transparency amid scrutiny of ICE – newly released body camera footage provides the clearest information yet as to what led up to shooting.
Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, died after he was shot multiple times on March 15, 2025. According to an ICE incident report, an agent opened fire on him after he struck a fellow agent with his Ford Fusion while driving through the scene of a prior vehicle accident ICE was assisting local police with.
The only other person in the vehicle, Joshua Orta, a close friend of Martinez’s, disputed law enforcement’s account of the incident in a witness statement provided to attorneys in September.
Orta wrote that an officer approached the car and “told us to turn around and leave,” after which a state trooper walked up to the car, slapped the hood and “wasn’t moving out of the way when we tried to turn around and leave.”
“I even saw them draw their guns,” Orta’s statement reads. “This was crazy to me because we were only crawling, like the car was in gear, but just coasting. Ruben never hit the gas. The troopers were never in danger from Ruben.”
At some point, a Homeland Security Investigations officer who Orta asserted “was in no danger from the car” fired multiple times at Ruben from no more than two feet away, the statement reads. Orta claimed the officer did so without providing a warning or command.
Orta died in a San Antonio car crash in February. Meanwhile, Martinez’s family had urged the release of evidence related to the incident and subsequent investigation.
The body camera video was released Friday by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which investigated the incident. It wasn’t taken from the perspective of the Homeland Security Investigations agent who fired the shots, but another law enforcement officer who was at the scene.
The officer is seen picking through the trunk of his patrol unit as an officer off-screen is heard saying, “Where are you going? Can’t you see us here with the lights on?”
“Keep going, keep going, keep going,” the officer can be heard saying as the blue car continues moving through the scene while other cars stick to the left lane.
Moments later, the officer yells at other law enforcement to stop the blue car as it slowly navigates the accident scene.
“Stop him, stop him, stop him,” the officer is heard yelling. “Stop him! Get him out, get him out!”
As the officer runs to catch up with the car, which doesn’t appear to be moving or is otherwise moving very slowly, three audible gunshots are heard as well as someone yelling, “Stop the f***ing vehicle!” The car’s brake lights appear to be on for about 10 seconds before the shots are fired, which is at odds with the ICE incident report stating Martinez “accelerated forward.”
“Shots fired, shots fired,” the officer wearing the body camera says.
The only time the vehicle is clearly seen making contact with a law enforcement officer is after the shots are fired, as the car creeps along to the left for a few feet and an officer appears to be grabbing it by the open driver-side window to stop it completely.
Officers are then seen pulling someone out of the vehicle and to the ground, where he appears to lay motionless. As someone asks about an ambulance, officers are seen putting handcuffs on him.
“Need that medic,” an officer yells.
An ambulance arrives a few seconds later as medical personnel begin to tend to the man.
A few minutes later, the officer is heard recounting the incident over the radio: “We had a vehicle drive onto the scene… kept trying to go onto the scene. We told him to turn around. HSI tried to stop him.”
“There was injuries, they’re working on the patient right now,” he officer later says. “Three gunshot wounds.”
Medical personnel is later seen trying to resuscitate Martinez with CPR before he’s taken in an ambulance. Orta is sitting on the ground a few feet away, handcuffed.
Attorneys for Rachel Reyes, Martinez’s mother, said the body camera football “calls ICE’s official account of a fatal shooting into question.”
“These new videos confirm that Ruben’s car was barely moving when he was shot,” the attorneys said. “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.”
Newsweek was the first to report that federal immigration authorities played a role in Martinez’s killing after obtaining internal ICE records earlier this year. The revelations renewed criticism of ICE, which was already under fire by prominent Texas Democrats amid the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Last week, a Texas grand jury did not find probable cause to issue an indictment in Martinez’s killing. But Reyes’ attorneys said their “pursuit of full transparency will continue until we have all the facts.”