Forty-eight hours after more than 100 law enforcement records and body-worn camera videos were released by the Texas Department of Public Safety, new footage has offered the most detailed visual account so far of the shooting death of 23-year-old U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on South Padre Island, Texas, almost a year after the incident took place.
New videos and related reports released on Friday, following public records requests, offer the most detailed visual account so far of the March 15, 2025, incident, which saw Martinez, a U.S. citizen from San Antonio, die after being shot multiple times by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, who fired several shots at his vehicle late at night.
Federal authorities had not released the name of the agency involved and the videos of the incident so far, but internal documents were released this year following a records request.
The videos depict Martinez’s blue Ford sedan moving slowly towards an intersection, where state and federal officers were assisting in managing traffic due to an unrelated two-vehicle accident, according to local body-camera videos.
In some videos taken by South Padre Island police officers, Martinez’s brake lights are visible before Martinez was shot. In one of them, three gunshots are heard before Martinez was shot.
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Unlike earlier claims by the Department of Homeland Security, in which Martinez’s car was said to accelerate towards an HSI agent, run him over, and finally prompt one of the agents to fire defensive shots, Martinez’s car does not accelerate towards any of the officers.
Federal officials claim that one of their agents was run over by Martinez’s car, though this incident does not seem to be captured by the videos.
Audio from the cameras also picks up the sounds of the police officers shouting at Martinez and at least one agent shouting at the others to stop the car as it ambled towards the scene.
The police are heard shouting, “Where is he going?” as the car moves slowly towards the intersection, where local law enforcement and federal agents had been directing traffic. Then, there are the sounds of gunfire.
As the footage, some of which was reviewed by The Texas Tribune, shows, Martinez’s car was at various points nearly stopped before moving only a few feet before the gunfire.
It is still not clear from the footage if any officer was hit or injured by the car before the gunfire.
After the gunfire, as the records show, HSI Special Agent Jack Stevens is seen pulling Martinez from the car and throwing him to the ground before handcuffing him.
There is no footage of any federal or local law enforcement officer immediately tending to Martinez’s injuries until minutes after he was removed from the car.
Martinez’s passenger, and close friend, Joshua Orta, 25, also gave an account that was documented in law-enforcement interviews, which goes against the official account by the federal authorities.
Orta said that Martinez did not strike any police officer with his car.
He told the Texas Rangers that he and Martinez had earlier in the evening celebrated Martinez’s birthday by drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana.
Orta said that when police approached Martinez, he became “jittery” and shifted the car a little before he was sprayed with bullets. Orta died in a car accident in early 2026.
Media reports indicate that toxicology reports showed that Martinez had alcohol and marijuana in his system when he died, but his attorneys said he had never been stopped on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
In a statement released this week, the lawyers for Martinez’s mother, Charles Stam and Alex Stamm, said the videos “confirm that Ruben’s car was barely moving when he was shot,” and that “nobody was on the hood of his car” or “in front of his car when he was shot.” They also said an agent fired at close range through the driver’s side window “when he was in no danger.”
The incident became publicly known for the first time in February last year after internal Homeland Security Investigations documents were obtained by the American Oversight, a government watchdog, through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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Prior to the public knowledge of the incident, the authorities had not named the federal immigration agents involved in the incident, and the shooting received little attention.
In late February, a grand jury in the Cameron County district attorney’s office declined to indict the federal agent who shot Martinez, ruling the killing a justifiable homicide.
Under Texas law, a grand jury decides if there is enough evidence to indict a suspect.
Prosecutors can still formally charge a suspect, but they almost never do.
One of the first recorded instances of the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal agents during the second term of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on immigration policies was the killing of Martinez.
The fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota took place after the killing of Martinez.
These incidents caused national protests. The protesters in the Minnesota incidents were actively participating in the protests against the actions of the authorities on immigration policies.