The most chilling line in the newly released evidence isn't one of the gunshots. It's the praise.
Hours after a Chicago woman lay in hospital with bullet wounds, a senior Border Patrol official emailed the agent who fired the shots to applaud his 'excellent service' and urge him not to retire.
In the bureaucratic language of 'support' and 'service,' the email reads like a commendation. In human terms, it feels like something else entirely: the system closing ranks before it has even looked properly at itself.
“I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes — put that in your book boys.”— Text message from Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum after the unprovoked shooting of U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez five times during an incident in Chicago. Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen, was shot five…pic.twitter.com/YnHKey6uvk
This week, federal prosecutors released a trove of material from the Border Patrol shooting of Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old US citizen, after a judge ordered key evidence unsealed.
The release includes body-worn camera footage from another agent at the scene, text messages sent by the shooter, and internal emails that reveal how quickly top officials rallied around him.
Martinez had been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding federal officers—allegations prosecutors dropped after the government's own handling of the case crumbled in court.
The shooting happened on 4 October, during an immigration enforcement surge in Chicago that authorities referred to as Operation Midway Blitz. Prosecutors initially alleged Marimar Martinez rammed a federal vehicle, prompting the agent, Charles Exum, to open fire in self-defence.
Martinez has said she followed Border Patrol vehicles but denied wrongdoing and has argued the agents' SUV struck her vehicle and that she tried to avoid Exum as he exited.
The newly released bodycam footage—captured from inside a federal Chevy Tahoe—shows agents with weapons drawn moments before the collision and shooting. One agent is heard saying, 'It's time to get aggressive,' and another voice is heard using profanity; shortly after the vehicles collide, gunshots ring out within seconds of the driver exiting.
Source: International Business Times UK
