{"id":491105,"date":"2026-02-26T06:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491105\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T06:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:58:11","slug":"texas-grand-jury-rejects-indictments-in-fatal-shooting-by-immigration-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/491105\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas grand jury rejects indictments in fatal shooting by immigration agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

A grand jury on Wednesday rejected indictments over the fatal shooting last year of a U.S. citizen<\/a> by a federal immigration agent during a traffic encounter in Texas, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

The shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez on March 15, 2025, by a Homeland Security Investigations agent wasn\u2019t publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security until The Associated Press and other media outlets reported it last week. HSI is an investigative unit which falls under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n

The Cameron County District Attorney\u2019s Office said in a statement that a grand jury declined to hand up indictments after being presented the case. The office did not provide additional details. <\/p>\n

In a previous statement DHS alleged that the 23-year-old \u201cintentionally ran over\u201d an HSI special agent, causing another agent to fire \u201cdefensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shooting would mark the earliest of at least six deadly shootings by federal officers since a nationwide immigration crackdown<\/a> was launched in President Donald Trump\u2019s second term. <\/p>\n

Attorneys for Martinez\u2019s family, who are skeptical of DHS\u2019 account of the shooting, said in a statement Wednesday that because grand jury proceedings are private they don\u2019t know what witness statements or video evidence were presented to the jurors. <\/p>\n

They are calling on the Texas Department of Public Safety to disclose the findings of its investigation so Martinez\u2019s family can \u201cdetermine for themselves whether ICE\u2019s story is accurate and why Ruben was killed that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorneys cited a draft affidavit from the passenger<\/a>, Joshua Orta, in the car with Martinez when he was shot. In the draft testimony, Orta reportedly said that Martinez did not hit an officer with his vehicle, that their car was \u201cjust crawling\u201d and that a federal agent fired into the driver\u2019s side window without \u201cgiving any warning, commands, or opportunity to comply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orta, a key witness to the encounter, died in a car crash last weekend. <\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s family are \u201cproud Americans, strong supporters of law enforcement, and Trump voters. They believe there are honest and decent officers out there,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey just want to be treated honestly and decently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez, who lived in San Antonio, Texas, and Orta were on a Spring Break trip to South Padre Island when he was shot. His death was reported by local media outlets at the time, but authorities did not disclose that the shooting involved a team from HSI. <\/p>\n

An incident report from ICE described the officers\u2019 account of what happened while they were assisting local police redirect traffic around a car accident.<\/p>\n

A four-door Ford with a driver and passenger approached officers, who ordered the driver to stop, the report said.<\/p>\n

Initially, the driver didn\u2019t respond to commands but eventually came to a stop, and agents surrounded the vehicle, telling those inside to get out, according to the report. <\/p>\n

The driver then \u201caccelerated forward\u201d and struck an HSI special agent \u201cwho wound up on the hood of the vehicle,\u201d prompting a HSI supervisory special agent nearby to fire his weapon multiple times through the open driver\u2019s side window, the report said.<\/p>\n

The draft affidavit disputes those details. <\/p>\n

In it, Orta reportedly said that he and Martinez were first approached by a police officer who told them to leave. As they tried turning, another officer approached, slapped the hood and \u201cseemed to be trying to get in front of the car,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Officers surrounded the vehicle yelling at them to stop and drawing their guns, the draft affidavit said, adding that Martinez was \u201conly crawling,\u201d and never hit an officer or the gas.<\/p>\n

An officer near the driver side window then pulled his weapon and fired without warning, the draft affidavit said, and Orta recounted hearing Martinez say \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d as he slumped backward unconscious.<\/p>\n

Reyes, Martinez\u2019s mother, told AP last week her son was shot three times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grand jury on Wednesday rejected indictments over the fatal shooting last year of a U.S. citizen by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,2724,1308,3071,12,793,7922,694,790,3073,224049,18320,4381,6429,6661,3,3766,224048,4382,1022,1059,3770,795,21,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":{"0":"post-491105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-automotive-accidents","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-gun-violence","15":"tag-homicide","16":"tag-immigration","17":"tag-indictments","18":"tag-joshua-orta","19":"tag-juries","20":"tag-law-enforcement","21":"tag-minnesota","22":"tag-mn-state-wire","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","25":"tag-ruben-ray-martinez","26":"tag-shootings","27":"tag-texas","28":"tag-tx-state-wire","29":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","30":"tag-u-s-news","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-united-states-of-america","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","35":"tag-us","36":"tag-usa","37":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}