"The involvement of a federal agent in the death of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was only revealed this month, when American Oversight - a nonprofit watchdog group - published federal documents obtained via public records request. Martinez is the third U.S. citizen known to have been fatally shot by DHS personnel since President Donald Trump launched an aggressive immigration crackdown in January."
"During that effort, officers and agents responded to a major vehicle accident in a commercial area populated with bars and beachwear stores. The internal documents said Martinez declined instructions to stop his vehicle while approaching a roadblock and struck a Homeland Security Investigations agent, 'who wound up on the hood of the vehicle.' An agent then fatally shot Martinez through the open driver's side window, the documents say."
"A witness to the shooting, Joshua Orta, 25, disputed the government's version of events in a written statement provided to lawyers for Martinez's mother, Rachel Reyes. Martinez was given conflicting instructions from multiple law enforcement officers, Orta wrote, and never struck an agent."
A grand jury declined to indict a federal immigration agent involved in the fatal shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, during an immigration enforcement operation in South Padre Island on March 15. The incident was not publicly disclosed until American Oversight obtained federal documents through a public records request. According to government documents, Martinez struck a Homeland Security Investigations agent with his vehicle at a roadblock after declining instructions to stop, and an agent subsequently shot him through the driver's side window. However, a witness disputed this account, stating Martinez received conflicting instructions and never struck an agent. Martinez is the third U.S. citizen fatally shot by DHS personnel since Trump's immigration crackdown began in January.
Read at The Washington Post
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]