The Texas Division of Public Security late Friday quietly launched physique digital camera and safety footage from a case by which federal immigration officers in South Padre Island final yr shot and killed a 23-year-old San Antonio man. The video exhibits him driving slowly previous officers stopping visitors, and at instances interacting with them whereas his brake lights are on, earlier than gunshots instantly ring out.
The clips, which have been reviewed by The Texas Tribune, don’t present Ruben Ray Martinez hitting the Division of Homeland Safety Investigations agent along with his automotive, because the company has repeatedly claimed. However in addition they don’t present clear proof that he didn’t. The footage is from a number of vantage factors and doesn’t present every thing – in some instances, key audio is lacking. The federal agent in query was not carrying a physique digital camera.
However legal professionals for Martinez’s household argued that the footage and associated paperwork don’t assist the administration’s assertion that he didn’t comply with their instructions after which accelerated, hitting one in every of its brokers and due to this fact necessitating deadly power.
“This batch of proof exhibits no justification for Ruben’s killing,” stated Charles Stam and Alex Stamm, attorneys for Martinez’s mom, in a joint assertion. “We, and the general public, have but to see all the proof held by the federal government.”
Martinez was shot a number of instances final March within the first identified occasion of DHS brokers killing an American citizen through the second Trump administration, which has spurred Democratic lawmakers’ push for additional accountability. The incident remained unknown till final month when American Oversight, a nonprofit authorities watchdog, launched lots of of pages associated to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of power that the group had obtained in a lawsuit.
South Padre Island Police had initially solely put out a press launch on Martinez’s dying, however didn’t determine the company answerable for the incident. Public data’ requests didn’t instantly reveal the federal company’s involvement. A two-sentence police report described Martinez placing a federal agent along with his automotive, however didn’t point out the capturing.
Martinez was in South Padre Island celebrating his birthday with mates, in keeping with a spokesperson for Rachel Reyes, Martinez’s mom, and her legal professionals. A self-proclaimed Trump supporter, Reyes has known as for an finish to “abuse and impunity” amongst legislation enforcement since federal brokers’ function in her son’s dying has come to mild.
His dying final yr occurred months earlier than public outrage and protest over the killings of two U.S. residents in Minnesota, who have been each shot by federal immigration brokers. A kind of killed, Minneapolis resident 37-year-old Renee Good, was accused by federal officers of making an attempt to run over an agent earlier than being fatally shot in her automotive. Physique digital camera footage obtained by media shops has contradicted ICE’s model of occasions in her case.
The physique digital camera footage launched by DPS’ Texas Rangers late Friday, and individually shared by Martinez’s legal professionals, present a crowded scene by which a number of drivers coming throughout an unrelated accident within the busy island trip spot’s fundamental thoroughfare have been confused on how you can reply. Based on the DPS report launched Friday, federal brokers have been additionally current to assist with safety and visitors management, which is widespread on this border group 30 miles from Mexico. Officers yelled at lots of the approaching drivers, aggressively demanding that they redirect from the accident whereas drivers appeared unclear on how you can navigate away from it safely on the island’s main street.
By the point Martinez arrived, after his legal professionals stated he had “a number of drinks” and had been at a celebration after which to Whataburger, footage exhibits him driving slowly towards the intersection in a blue Ford Fusion. He stops away from the intersection and seems to talk with one officer. His automotive then creeps ahead whereas an officer factors within the course that he’s driving. The footage exhibits that his brake lights are on and he’s slowing down as he reaches the intersection. He seems to return to a full cease as soon as extra, ready for pedestrians to cross, earlier than making a proper flip.
In distinction, a DHS spokesperson has claimed that Martinez “deliberately ran over” a federal agent earlier than one other officer shot and killed him
One other physique digital camera from a distinct vantage level exhibits the blue automotive pushed by Martinez after it stops and earlier than he makes the flip. One officer could be heard saying, “cease him, cease him,” showing to run after the car. One other officer says “get him out.” A separate physique digital camera reveals an officer yelling, “the place’s he going?”
Footage, alongside reviews by officers, present {that a} Texas Parks and Wildlife Division recreation warden informed one other sergeant that Martinez had a bottle of Crown Royal, a Canadian whiskey, inside his automotive. An unidentified individual within the video stated to “maintain going” earlier than one warden yelled to a different officer to cease Martinez from driving ahead. Based on footage and legislation enforcement reviews, Martinez drove into the intersection. Officers started working towards Martinez’s automotive.
“Out of the car now,” one yelled.
Seconds later, at about 11:42 p.m., gunshots ring out as bystanders are seen fleeing.
That’s adopted by officers yelling, “photographs fired.”
Officers are seen dragging Martinez, carrying black Adidas pants, out of the automotive onto the pavement. They handcuff the person as he lays on the bottom, barely shifting. Paramedics later load Martinez onto a stretcher, with one officer calling an ambulance and one other confirming “an exit wound.” He was transported to an area hospital in Brownsville, the place he later died. A toxicology report and post-mortem of Martinez detected alcohol, marijuana and alprazolam, a prescription remedy for anxiousness, in keeping with the data.
Footage additionally exhibits officers handcuffing Martinez’s buddy and passenger, 25-year-old Joshua Orta. Orta, who dictated a press release to attorneys to refute the federal government’s account, died in an unrelated automotive crash in San Antonio in late February earlier than he might signal an affidavit or testify. His household has stated he had been deeply troubled by what occurred that day.
“HSI is okay,” one officer stated after the capturing, in keeping with the footage. “That man, they transported him.”
One other officer provides, “HSI tried to cease him.”
A written assertion despatched to DPS from Jack Stevens, the HSI agent who shot Martinez, stated he believed that the person trying previous officers with clenched arms on the steering wheel was a “pre assault indicator” and that Stevens feared for his and others’ security earlier than firing.
Stevens couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. Spokespeople for DHS and ICE didn’t reply to questions concerning the new footage late Friday. A spokesperson for DPS, which oversees the Texas Rangers, additionally didn’t reply.
However within the company’s report launched alongside the footage, investigators described a federal agent shouting to Martinez to cease the automotive earlier than the agent “in the end discharged his handgun towards the driving force for not stopping.” The report describes Martinez’s automotive as “slowly driving ahead” when he was shot.
The report additionally included interviews with a number of officers on the scene, together with Stevens and one other HSI agent who approached the car. The opposite agent claimed Martinez’s automotive “bumped his legs” after he was ordered to halt, and that he fell over the automotive’s hood because the automotive made a flip.
None of that’s seen within the out there footage.
Footage from a physique digital camera captured after the capturing confirmed an officer describing the scene to South Padre Island police chief Claudine O’Carroll. The officer informed the chief that Martinez had “stepped on it” after being informed to cease and was “on high of brokers in entrance” of the automotive earlier than photographs have been fired.
Attorneys for Martinez argued in a press release to the Tribune that the footage exhibits his automotive was “barely shifting when he was shot. That he was braking, not accelerating. That no person was on the hood of his automotive. That no person was in entrance of his automotive when he was shot. That he was shot at point-blank vary by his aspect window by an ICE agent who was in no hazard.”
After ICE’s involvement in Martinez’s dying was made public final month, a Cameron County grand jury dominated that it didn’t discover possible trigger to problem a legal indictment associated to the capturing. Whereas prosecutors can pursue a case after such a choice by a grand jury, they not often do.
In an interview with CBS Information this week, Martinez’s mom who has principally remained silent over the previous yr, stated that she nonetheless doesn’t consider DHS’ model of what occurred.
“He was not a violent individual,” she stated of her son. “He was not aggressive.”
This text first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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