Marimar Martinez, Chicago woman shot and briefly charged by Border
Patrol, moves to sue
[February 12, 2026]
By Maggie Dougherty
CHICAGO — The woman who once faced charges for assaulting Border Patrol
agents after being shot five times is no longer on the defensive, now
plans to launch her own civil lawsuit against Homeland Security and the
agent who shot her.
Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old Montessori school teacher’s assistant
and lifelong Chicagoan, is pursuing a Federal Torts Claim Act case
against the federal government for Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum’s
alleged use of excessive force against her.
The Federal Torts Claim Act allows individuals to sue the federal
government for monetary damages if federal employees acting in their
official capacities caused personal injury, death or property loss via a
negligent or wrongful act.
Martinez will seek tens of millions of dollars in damages when she gets
her day in court, her attorneys said at a Wednesday news conference.
The first step, however, is to file a FTCA complaint, which Martinez’s
lawyers said they would mail the same day. FTCA claimants must wait six
months for a response to the complaint from the government before they
may file a civil suit.
Martinez’s attorneys were confident the complaint would not receive a
response, allowing them to file an official suit and have a bench trial
in front of a federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois.
“I’m confident, based on their track record, … we will get a fair trial,
will hold this officer accountable, and we intend to fast forward this
case,” Michael Gallagher, one of the attorneys representing Martinez,
said. “We want to be at trial by October.”
Evidence released
Martinez’s lawyers also shared evidence from her case that had been
under seal, even though a judge had dismissed the assault charges
against her with prejudice in November.
A judge approved her request to unseal much of the evidence in the case
last week. She’s now seeking to defend her reputation by publicly
releasing evidence from her case that she says will refute Exum and the
Department of Homeland Security’s claims that she is a “domestic
terrorist” with a history of doxing agents and that she rammed agents
with her car.
Federal prosecutors released text messages, body camera footage and
photos from the scene. Martinez’s team says they will release additional
records that were not in the batch made public by the U.S. attorney’s
office.
Martinez’s team previewed some of those records during the news
conference and discussed how the evidence undermines seven lies they
identified as being weaponized by DHS in a “misguided smear campaign.”
“You (get) to see why it mattered, why it matters that people can
actually see the real evidence, as opposed to the false claims by our
government,” attorney Chris Parente said. “I mean, we live in a strange
time right now where we cannot trust our federal government. I’ve never
lived through anything like that.”
The lies outlined by Parente included the government’s claim that
Martinez is a domestic terrorist, that she has a history of doxing
federal agents, that she rammed into agents with her car and boxed them
in, that all of Exum’s shots went through her windshield and that she
was armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
What the records show
Martinez was on her way to donate clothes to her church last fall when
she noticed a vehicle with Border Agents driving through her Brighton
Park neighborhood, according to her attorneys. Photos of her vehicle
show a black garbage bag filled with clothes in the back seat.
The agents were in Chicago during an immigration enforcement campaign
called Operation Midway Blitz.
Martinez began trailing agents in her vehicle, following for about 15
minutes while honking and calling out “La Migra,” a Spanish term for
federal immigration enforcement officers, to alert her neighbors to the
agents’ presence.
Then, as Martinez was driving alongside the CBP vehicle, her lawyers say
Exum “deliberately swerved” his vehicle into hers — contrary to DHS
claims that Martinez “rammed” her vehicle into the agents’ car and boxed
them in.
After the incident, one of the agents interviewed by the FBI drew a
diagram reportedly showing the arrangement of cars on the road, which
would support the agents’ version of events. A copy of that diagram was
in the batch of records released by federal prosecutors.
The drawing depicts three vehicles ahead of the Border Patrol vehicle on
the road, followed by vehicles driven by Martinez and her co-defendant,
whose charges were also dismissed with prejudice.
However, video footage from a nearby auto shop showed two cars pass by,
and then only after both cars were out of sight did the Border Patrol
vehicle pass the shop.
“How can they claim they couldn’t go forward? We just saw that those
cars ahead of them went forward,” Parente said. “They drew those cars in
to justify a bad shooting.”
The shooting itself was not captured on body camera video, as Exum did
not have his camera turned on, an apparent violation of department
policy.
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Marimar Martinez and her attorneys present recently unsealed
evidence from her trial at a Feb. 11, 2026, news conference.
Martinez’s legal team announced at the event that they would be
filing a Federal Torts Claim Act complaint later that day, the first
step toward a civil suit against the Border Patrol agent who shot
Martinez five times in October. (Capitol News Illinois photo by
Maggie Dougherty)
However, one of the agents in the back seat did activate his camera,
capturing the moments before and after the shooting, in which Exum
appears to veer sharply to the left in the direction of Martinez’s
vehicle. Both vehicles came to a stop before Exum exited his car and
shot Martinez five times, all in under two seconds.
Those shots, he claimed, were all directed through the windshield of
Martinez’s car, something he and other agents repeated in their
statements to the FBI. That would support the claim that Martinez was
driving directly at agents when Exum shot her.
Yet attorneys for Martinez said the evidence contradicts that claim,
showing three bullets on the passenger side of her car.
“She’s a car length away from this guy, and he’s a firearms instructor,”
Parente said. “If she’s truly driving right at him, you’re going to have
all five shots straight through the driver’s side of the windshield.
Well, what do you have? Because she’s not driving at him, she’s driving
away from him, you have three bullets on the passenger side.”
In statements released after the shooting, DHS spokesperson Tricia
McLaughlin justified the shooting in part by claiming that Martinez was
armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
Martinez, who attorneys said has a valid concealed carry license, had a
gun stored in a bright pink holster, snapped shut at the bottom of her
purse. Agents in the case did not claim at any point that Martinez took
out the weapon or pointed it at them.
Martinez, Parente added, is a U.S. citizen who has no criminal record.
McLaughlin also posted a statement on X, quoting Martinez as saying,
“Hey to all my gang let’s f— those mother f—–s up, don’t let them take
anyone.”
However, attorneys for Martinez say that the evidence they are set to
release shows that statement was made in an unrelated ICE report by
someone not connected to Martinez. DHS has issued no retraction and the
post remains visible online.
Parente also argued that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s written
“Respect for Life” policy is a lie, pointing to a screenshot of an email
in which then-Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino congratulated Exum
on his “excellent service in Chicago” and offered him an extension of
his retirement age.
The email was sent just hours after Exum shot Martinez, while she was
still in the hospital and her survival was uncertain, before the
completion of any investigation into the shooting.
“People want to know why no one did CPR to Miss Good when she was dying
in the streets of Minneapolis,” Parente said, referring to Renee Good,
the woman fatally shot by an ICE agent last month. “It’s because the
agents were probably checking their phone to see what their reward was
going to be for killing them, right? Because this is what the culture is
at Border Patrol, you’re getting emails from the highest levels within
hours of a shooting, rewarding you.”
Attorneys also highlighted a number of text messages sent and received
by Exum from other agents, including texts calling him “a legend among
agents” and promising to buy him beers to celebrate.
In one with his “Posse Chat,” a group chat with other Border Patrol
agents, an agent asked Exum “Are they supportive?” apparently asking
about DHS leadership.
“Big time,” Exum replied. “Everyone has been including Chief Bovino,
Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself… according to Bovino.”
Martinez’s lawyers interpreted “El Jefe,” Spanish for “the Boss,” as a
reference to President Donald Trump.
Most people would walk away quietly after their case was dropped,
Parente said. But for Martinez, it was important to be a voice for
others, like Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, all
killed by federal agents in similar encounters around the country.
“To have your own government call you something as hurtful and as
harmful as a domestic terrorist when you know you’re not is just
unacceptable,” Parente said. “And that’s why Miramar instructed her team
to continue to fight.”
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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