All three immigration agents in the unmarked silver Chevrolet Tahoe SUV had body cameras. Only the one in the right-rear passenger seat had his recording as they rolled through South Kedzie Avenue in Chicago on the morning of October 5.
But that was enough to preserve what one of the agents said as they decided to take action against a woman in a silver Nissan Rogue for having the audacity to follow them for a few minutes.
Months later, the world can finally know what really happened, and see the dark aftermath of a few sudden seconds in which an American citizen was filled with bullets, only for her government’s officials, possibly even the chief executive, to celebrate a moment in which that American thought she would die.
It began when Marimar Martinez had been exercising her freedom of speech by shouting out “La Migra!” as immigration officers are known in Hispanic neighborhoods. Her cries were either too infrequent or too faint to be captured by the body cam, but the agents can be clearly heard.
“It’s time to get aggressive and get the f--- out,” one of them says. “We’re going to make contact.”
An agent apparently addresses the woman as she drives alongside, to their left.
“Do something, b---h.”
Agent Charles Exum is at the wheel, and he can be seen turning sharply left towards the woman’s car. The SUV creases the passenger side of the woman’s car in what would barely qualify as a fender bender in other circumstances.
“Be advised, we’ve been struck! We’ve been struck!” one of the agents announces over the air.
Exum pulls over and, in one smooth move, he slid from behind the steering wheel in his combat attire and drew his handgun. He was not so much enforcing the law as following a script that began with the Trump administration’s fiction that its immigration agencies are defending the homeland against an invading horde of murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. He does not appear to have said anything as he fired five times. Here was cosplay for real, involving actual bullets.
“Shots fired! Shots fired! We need backup!” one of the agents announces.
What appears to be a supervisor arrives. The agents report Exum had fired in self-defense.
“She tried to run him over,” one of the agents tells him.
They report that the woman “took off.” The supervisor was asked if she had been hit.
“I have no idea,” one of the agents says.
The body cam footage records the arrival of a Chicago police supervisor, along with several uniformed cops. He asks the agents if there was body camera footage. The one agent’s body camera is still on and records the reply.
“No.”
The woman would later issue a statement, released by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal on Feb. 3, offering her own account. She said she had been on her way to donate clothing to a church when she saw immigration agents in an SUV with a Kentucky rear license plate and no front plate. She began to follow it with the intent of warning people in the community.
“My vehicle was two to three feet to the left of the Border Patrol vehicle,” she recounted. “He started to swerve into my lane as we were driving. I made eye contact with the driver of the Border Patrol vehicle and watched as he turned the steering wheel once again to his left and sideswiped my vehicle. I immediately froze, slammed on my brakes, and stopped my car. The Border Patrol vehicle stopped just 1 to 2 car lengths ahead of me. It seemed like time stopped. I knew from watching the news coverage of other Border Patrol encounters in Chicago that I was in danger.”
She said she had driven off in fear.
“I drove forward and went around the Border Patrol agent who jumped out of his car and pointed his gun at me. I moved to the far-left lane, striking the curb on the far left side of Kedzie. The next thing I knew I felt a burning sensation in my arms and legs.”
She initially thought she had been hit by a pepperball, as she had seen agents fire on other days.
“As I continued to drive past the Border Patrol agent I could hear my back passenger window shatter and I felt bullets continue to pierce my body. As I attempted to drive to a safe location, I began to feel lightheaded. I looked down and noticed blood gushing out of my arms and legs and I realized I had been shot multiple times. As I became lightheaded, I became worried I would pass out and endanger other drivers on the road. I managed to drive a mile from where the incident happened and I pulled into the parking lot of a mechanic shop and called 911. I told the 911 operator that Border Patrol agents had just shot me and I needed help. I recall some of the workers from the shop sitting me down in a chair, as I was waiting for help but I was losing this battle. I saw my life flash before me and slowly began to think this was the end for me before losing consciousness. The next thing I remember is the EMTs putting me on a stretcher and taking me to the hospital.”
The woman’s name and her status, a U.S, Citizen (USC), along with the particulars of her injuries, were posted on a group chat called “OUR POSSE.” Its members include Exum, several family members, and fellow agents.
Exum texted a link to a new article that reported two of the bullets had caused exit as well as entry wounds.
“Read it,” he wrote. “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”
A group member exclaimed, “That’s awesome! You did REAL GOOD”.
“Thanks you mam,” Exum replied, then correcting himself, “Thank.”
A group member asked, “They f--- up your ride?”
Exum replied, “Ding sheet, it’ll buff out. I messed it up a little. I’ll send you guys some pics.”
A group member, who is apparently a fellow agent, texted, “You are a legend among agents, you better f---n know that. Beers on me when I see you at training.”
Martinez was still in the hospital when Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander overseeing Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, emailed Exum.
“I’d like to extend an offer for you to extend your retirement beyond age 57,” Bovino told the veteran of 20 years. “That will be your second extension, and we’d like you to consider if this is feasible. In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much yet left to do!”
That was posted in the group chat, along with a photo of a woman with long tresses in a tactical vest who is either Homeland Security Secretary Krsti Noem or an ICE Barbie look-alike; perhaps a double cosplay.
Exum also shared a link to a news site reporting, “Federal agents taunted Chicago woman to ‘do something’ before shooting her, attorney claims.”
Exum added, “LMAO.”
Someone in the group chat asked if the higher-ups had backed up Exum.
“Big time,” he reported. “Everyone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself ... according to Bovino.”
“El Jefe himself,” apparently being Trump, who had set it all in motion in his effort to get where he is.
Another text suggested Exum’s willingness to take Bovino up on his offer to continue on.
“I’m ready for another round of ‘F--- around and find out.”
At the hospital, Martinez was appraising the damage done by five bullets fired without warning.
“My arms, legs and chest were all wrapped in bandages,” she said in her statement. “I had 7 bullet holes in my body. I remember the agents rushing the nurses to finish up so they could take me with them. I still felt dizzy, I was not able to fully process what had happened to me.”
Three hours after her arrival, she was discharged from the hospital into the custody of the FBI.
“I was escorted out through the back in a wheelchair. I observed dozens of Border Patrol agents waiting outside the hospital. One of these agents came up to me with his cell phone and took my photograph.”
She was processed at the FBI office.
“Because they rushed me out of the hospital so quickly, the blood started soaking through the bandages and dripping on the floor of the FBI office. I heard the agents talking about how the jail would not accept me in my current condition. I begged the agents to take me to a different hospital to give me proper medical care. Seeing me stand in a pool of my own blood, they were concerned about my health. One of the kind FBI agents brought a bag of additional bandages and worked quickly to put more dressing over my bloody bandages. The FBI agents agreed to take me to a different hospital where my wounds were retreated and I received additional medical care before being released back into law enforcement custody the following day.”
From there, she was taken to the federal detention facility in downtown Chicago.
“I have never even had a parking ticket before and now I was sitting in a federal detention center. All of this just for being the victim in a minor traffic accident. Things were surreal. The news in the jail that evening had my story and I was being called a “domestic terrorist”! They said I “rammed” federal agents. I was in shock. If they only knew I was just months away from paying off my car and I would never intentionally damage my vehicle, much less be crazy enough to hit a law enforcement vehicle.”
She is a teacher at a Montessori school, and just a day before, she had been preparing her class for Halloween.
“We were singing and dancing and getting ready for spooky season,” she said in her statement. “And on Saturday, my own government was calling me a ‘domestic terrorist’ and I was in a federal detention center with bullet holes all over my body.”
The FBI filed an affidavit repeating the Border Patrol’s account, saying there was probable cause to believe she “forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated and interfered with” three Border Patrol agents.
She was in federal court that Monday.
“I looked around the courtroom and recognized over a dozen moms and dads from the Montessori school along with my boss and most of my family who came to support me. I heard my attorney tell the judge that he had received over 50 letters from the moms and dads of the kids I taught all describing me as a caring, loving, empathetic teacher, the exact opposite of a ‘domestic terrorist’.”
The judge quickly denied the government’s detention request and released her on bond.
“Over the next six weeks everything was surreal. I continued to work and teach my children but knowing that I was under federal indictment and facing felony charges and potentially years in federal prison over a minor car accident where the other driver was at fault and attempted to kill me was terrifying. There were times where I did not believe this was all real and then I would touch my bullet wounds and knew it was certainly real.”
She reassured herself that her attorney, Christopher Parente, was hard at work exposing the lies.
“I knew the truth of what happened. The agent swerved into me. The agent shot me as I drove away from him.”
At a court hearing, Martinez sat 20 feet away as the man she termed ”my attempted executioner” offered his version of the incident under oath.
“Watching Charles Exum testify made me sick to my stomach,” she recalled in her statement, “I grew up revering law enforcement. Prior to this incident, I had great respect for local and federal law enforcement. I knew every day they put their lives on the line to keep me safe, to keep the kids at my school safe, and I thought to keep everyone in our community safe.”
Parente asked Exum about his chat group. The agent said it was a way of “relieving stress.”
“And what did you mean by ‘Read it. 5 shots’?” Parente asked. “Why are you pointing that fact out?”
“I’m a firearms instructor,” Exum replied. “And I take pride in my shooting skills.”
Parente asked about the SUV, and Exum confirmed that he had driven it from the FBI evidence garage easily 1,000 miles to Maine, where he is usually based. He said that someone at the garage had taken it upon himself to repair what had, in fact, been minor damage before the defense had an opportunity to examine it.
With that evidence gone and with body cam footage casting at least some doubt on Border Patrol’s version of the incident, the government chose to drop the case last November.
On Tuesday, the government released the footage from the lone body cam, along with texts by Exum and his buddies.
But since that incident, more recklessness in similar situations, followed by dubious accounts, have resulted in two shootings by combat-clad immigration agents in Minneapolis. Renee Good and Alex Pretti both died in what amounted to cosplay for keeps.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the DHS for comment.
