Grand jury rejects indictment over federal officer’s shooting of US citizen | US news
A grand jury on Wednesday dismissed indictments in last year’s fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent during a traffic collision in Texas, prosecutors said.
The March 15, 2025, shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez by a Homeland Security Investigative agent was not made public by the Department of Homeland Security until the Associated Press and other media outlets reported on it last week.
The Cameron County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that a grand jury declined to return indictments after hearing the case. The office did not provide additional details.
DHS alleged that Martinez “intentionally knocked down a Homeland Security Investigation special agent,” causing another agent to fire “defensive shots to protect himself, fellow agents, and the general public.”
The shooting would mark the first of at least six deadly shootings by federal agents since a nationwide immigration crackdown began during Donald Trump’s second term.
A passenger who was in the car with Martinez, Joshua Orta, had disputed the DHS account in a draft affidavit prepared last year, according to attorneys for Martinez’s family. Orta, a key witness to the encounter, died in a car accident last weekend.
Martinez and Orta were traveling on South Padre Island, Texas, when they approached local and federal officers directing traffic around a car crash at a busy intersection, according to the draft affidavit.
In a draft affidavit, Orta reportedly said Martinez did not strike a police officer with his vehicle, that their car was “simply crawling” and that a federal agent shot into the driver’s side window without “giving any warning, command or opportunity to comply.”
Lawyers for Martinez’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
