CHICAGO (AP) — An American citizen shot by a Customs and Border Protection agent one year ago during a sweeping immigration crackdown in Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Monday, alleging the agent lied about the shooting and fired into her vehicle from behind.
Federal prosecutors initially accused Marimar Martinez, then 30, of using her vehicle to strike and box in agent Charles Exum’s SUV on Chicago’s southwest side on Oct.
4, 2025, during “Operation Midway Blitz.” Exum then exited his car and opened fire, leaving Martinez with seven gunshot wounds.
In the month after the shooting, prosecutors filed to dismiss the charges in a dramatic reversal of the closely watched case in the nation's third-largest city.
Her lawyers said Monday that they commissioned an expert to analyze bullet trajectories and her injuries and determined Exum wasn't in the path of her car when he opened fire. They said he had walked several feet toward her car, contrary to statements he made to the FBI, and fired off five shots in less than a second, the last from the rear side of her vehicle.
“Charles Exum told the FBI agent on that day, within hours of the shooting, that Marimar was driving her car directly at him, that he shot her five times through the windshield, and that he ceased firing once he was no longer in the path of the vehicle. Those are three objective lies that you’ll see here today,” said one of her attorneys, Chris Parente.
Parente said there were only three bullet holes in Martinez’ windshield on the right passenger side, which indicated Martinez wasn't driving toward the agent. He said the fourth shot was fired through the front passenger side window, adding another bullet hole in the back of Martinez’ car seat showed the agent fired the fifth shot from behind her.
“In what world can a U.S. law enforcement officer stand behind a car and fire his Glock service weapon through the rear passenger window at a young woman who’s crouched over the steering wheel?” Parente said.
CBP said in a statement to The Associated Press in response to the suit that Exum had been placed on administrative leave. Use-of-force incidents are “thoroughly investigated, reviewed, and presented” to an independent board, it added.
Exum is not a defendant in the lawsuit against the federal government, which was filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act and does not allow for lawsuits against individual agents. It was not known where Exum could be reached.
Body-worn camera footage from another agent in Exum's vehicle before the shooting captured the agents saying it was “time to get aggressive” and other profanity-laced comments by agents who were present encouraging violence, according to the complaint.
The FBI arrested Martinez, taking her out of the hospital just hours after the shooting when she was “wheelchair bound and her bullet holes were leaking blood through her bandages,” according to the lawsuit. A judge ordered her release two days after her arrest.
Messages released by Martinez’ attorneys in February showed that former head of Border Patrol Greg Bovino had praised Exum for his “excellent service in Chicago” after the shooting. Other messages they released showed agents in a group chat congratulating Exum and calling him a “legend.”
Martinez was one several people shot in their cars by federal agents during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. An immigration agent shot a Venezuelan delivery driver in his car in Austin, Texas, last month, and another shot a Colombian driver in Biddeford, Maine, in July. The Trump administration has at times justified such shootings as self-defense against people allegedly weaponizing their vehicles.
Martinez appeared with her attorneys at a news conference Monday, saying the various shootings spurred her to file suit.
“If I don’t, then who else, you know? Look at what happened to Renee and all these victims,” she said, referring to Renee Good, a woman shot dead in her vehicle by a federal agent in Minneapolis in January.
“What’s happening is not normal. We shouldn’t stay here and normalize what’s happening,” she said.
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Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
