What Happened
On the morning of Oct. 4, 2025, Marimar Martinez was driving through Brighton Park on her way to donate clothes to her church when she spotted an SUV with an Uber placard, no front plate, an out-of-state rear plate, and a uniformed CBP agent inside. She followed the vehicle for 15–20 minutes, honking and shouting "La Migra!" to warn her neighbors.
Body camera audio from inside the agents' SUV captured the escalation. One agent said "it's time to get aggressive" and another taunted her, "do something, b****," before Agent Charles Exum steered into her car.
When she braked, Exum got out and fired five shots into her vehicle, hitting her arm, chest, and legs three times. His own body camera wasn't recording when he fired. An independent witness told the Commission they saw no threat to agents before the crash — contradicting Exum's account.
The Cover-Up
DHS said agents were "ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles," and separately claimed Martinez was armed with a semi-automatic weapon. Surveillance video shows no ambush — just two vehicles — and while Martinez did have a registered firearm, there's no evidence she ever removed it from her purse. Exum claimed he fired because she drove at him; photos show shots entering from the rear, indicating she was driving away.
Afterward, Exum texted a colleague: "I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys." Commander Gregory Bovino congratulated him by email while Martinez was still hospitalized.
Days later, the vehicle was driven 1,100 miles to Maine, where a mechanic was reportedly told to "buff out" the damage before defense attorneys could examine it. A federal judge later found agents' official reports "systematically contradicted their own body camera footage."
Charged, Then Cleared
Martinez was publicly branded a "domestic terrorist" — including by FBI Director Kash Patel — then charged by DOJ with assaulting federal officers. More than 50 letters from her students' parents were submitted in her support. A judge denied pretrial detention, and on Nov. 20, 2025, the charges were dismissed with prejudice.
On Feb. 3, 2026, she testified at a Senate forum in Washington. The three agents involved were placed on administrative leave.
They didn’t see me as human. My life didn’t matter to them.
Marimar Martinez in her testimony to the IAC.
