You can't hide your lying ICE: The covered-up killing of Ruben Ray Martinez
It took nearly a year for the public to learn that a DHS officer killed a Latino man and U.S. citizen -- and that federal officers lied about how it happened.
(Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about how the Trump administration has brazenly lied about abuse by immigration officers. You can find links to previous posts below.)
Ruben Ray Martinez was the first person shot and killed by immigration agents during Donald Trump’s second term. His death wasn’t part of an immigration enforcement operation, but the way he was killed — and the way federal officers lied about how it happened — has become emblematic of how this administration has responded to clear abuse by federal officers.
The public didn’t learn about Martinez’s death for nearly a year after it happened, and only then because of a Freedom of Information Act request brought by the public interest group American Oversight. That’s because while local police did acknowledge he was killed by law enforcement, they did not include in their reports that he’d been killed by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer, a division of ICE. DHS itself didn’t report the death, either. (We’d later see a similar coverup in Washington, D.C., when local police neglected to include in reports that an ICE officer had fired his gun at an innocent motorist because the officer who wrote the report didn’t want to anger the Trump administration.)
On the night of March 15, 2025, Martinez, a U.S. citizen, was in South Padre Island, Texas, with his friend Joshua Orta to celebrate his 23rd birthday. This was a big deal for Martinez. Friends and family described him to media outlets as a shy guy who rarely ventured outside of San Antonio, where he lived.
The two friends had just stopped at Whataburger between 11pm and midnight. At around 11:40pm, they rolled up on a chaotic scene after an unrelated accident. Federal officers were assisting local police by directing traffic, as they often do along the border.
According to police reports, federal officers claimed that as he approached the scene of the accident, Martinez abruptly accelerated, and struck two officers. As one officer tumbled over the hood of Martinez’s car another officer, Jack C. Stevens, then opened fire through the driver’s side window. Stevens would tell investigators that he saw Martinez’s “clenched hands” on the steering wheel, which he took as “pre-attack indicator” of a vehicle assault that could result in “numerous casualties.” Another federal officer told the South Padre police chief that Martinez had “stepped on it,” and had several officers in his sights when he was killed.
Eleven months later, the police reports turned up in American Oversight’s FOIA request, which the group then shared with Newsweek. That spurred several media groups to submit requests for body camera footage.
The Trump administration has mostly refused to provide body camera footage from federal immigration officers (except when they seem to think it’s exculpatory), but a San Antonio news station — and then other outlets — was able to obtain body camera footage from Texas Department of Public Safety officers at the scene.
Those videos tell an entirely different story. The footage depicts confusing muddle of flashing lights and officers from several different agencies shouting simultaneous, sometimes conflicting orders at motorists.
As for Martinez, the videos show him slowing his car to a stop as he approaches the intersection, after which he rolls down his window and has a brief conversation with a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden. I’d suggest that this already is not the behavior of someone determined to inflict “numerous casualties.”
The warden then spots an open Crown Royal bottle in Martinez’s car, which would be an open container violation under Texas law. So he tells Martinez to pull off to the side of the road.
But as Martinez starts comply, you can hear someone else yell “keep going” multiple times as the game warden waves his flashlight. As Martinez passes through the intersection, other officers then contradict the “keep going” instruction and begin yelling at Martinez to stop. It’s here that he slightly accelerates, though only slightly.
There’s no evidence in the video of him striking any officers, though there are also moments where the car is out of view. Multiple officers then run at that car, and someone yells, “Out of the vehicle now!” A few seconds later, the HSI officer opens fire.
The videos never show Martinez “stepping on it.” There’s no sudden burst of acceleration. When the HSI officer opens fire, the car is stopped or nearly stopped, and its brake lights are on. Stevens then shot Martinez through the driver’s side window, from point blank range.
Joshua Orta, a friend of Martinez’s and a passenger in the car, also disputed the DHS account. Orta said while Martinez may have inadvertently bumped an officer while trying to pull over, he had no intention of hitting anyone, and no officer went tumbling over the hood. He’d later say that one officer had slapped the hood of the car with his hand, an intimidation tactic we’ve seen from other officers, and the sound from which has led to false charges that motorists intentionally struck officers with their cars.
Orta told investigators that Martinez was confused by the contradictory commands, and seemed panicked about where he was supposed to go. Martinez had no criminal record, though he was above the legal alcohol limit to drive.
The Texas Tribune published a particularly compelling dive into the shooting, which includes this scene:
Three hours later and about 300 miles away, a state trooper pounded on the door of Ruben’s San Antonio home. His mother, Rachel Reyes, a 48-year-old nurse and health insurance administrator, heard the officer’s words: “On behalf of the State of Texas, we regret to inform you that your son, Ruben Martinez, passed away last night.”
There had been an accident in the Rio Grande Valley. Ruben, who had never left San Antonio on his own before, wasn’t involved in the crash. He came upon it by chance then went down a lane that he “wasn’t supposed to” and “tapped” an officer with his car, the trooper told Reyes. Another officer shot Ruben.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” exclaimed the mother, who in her shock defaulted to an apology. “Is the officer hurt?” she recalled asking. No, the trooper said, the cop was fine.
Reyes, who says she supported and voted for Donald Trump, heard nothing more from the government after that visit. In fact, she only learned of the government’s baseless claim that her son had intentionally tried to run over federal law enforcement when his employer, Amazon, told her she was only eligible for a reduced payout on his insurance claim. That’s because if he had he survived the incident that caused his death, he would likely have been charged with a felony. (A DUI would not have resulted in a felony charge.)
We now know that going back at least 15 years, immigration officers have been putting themselves in front of cars to create the conditions that justify deadly force. The tactic is prohibited by most police agencies around the country, and a clear violation of federal policy. But a policy is only effective if it’s enforced. And this administration takes pride in not enforcing restraints on immigration officers.
We also know that when DHS has charged people for hitting federal officers with their vehicles, those charges aren’t holding up in court. And we know that such charges have been repeatedly contradicted by video and witness statements. Despite all of that, mere allegations against a motorist are apparently enough to reduce the life insurance payout to the surviving family.
The collateral damage from Martinez’s death extended beyond his family. Joshua Orta saw his friend die right in front of him. He took it hard. Friends and family told the Texas Tribune that he had frequent nightmares after the shooting. His personality changed, and he began drinking more heavily. Last February, Orta crashed into a telephone pole after a night of drinking. He died at the scene.
This pattern in which federal officers put themselves in front of cars; give conflicting commands; kill, shoot, or assault confused motorists; claim the motorists intentionally tried to run them over; and are then clearly contradicted by video and witnesses, has played out over and over in the 15 months since. So far, none of those agents have been held accountable, for either the abuse or the lying.
The Texas Rangers investigated Martinez’s death, and in February a grand jury declined to indict Stevens killing him. I’m not sure that tells us much, given how often we’ve seen police misconduct excused by prosecutors. And of course we don’t know what evidence prosecutors actually presented to the grand jury.
But even if that was the correct call with respect to the evidence of criminal culpability, it shouldn’t be the end of the inquiry. Whether Martinez’s death was a crime is a separate question from whether it was preventable. Given what we know about him, it seems doubtful that a shy young guy with no criminal record suddenly decided to murder several federal police officers with his car. The more likely scenario is that he was confused or panicked, and Stevens mistook his panic for intent. At worst, it’s feasible that Martinez panicked when he realized he was likely above the legal limit to drive, and tried to flee. But that isn’t a capital crime.
A decent, humane approach to a death like this would be to express some remorse and ask what can be done to prevent similar miscommunication that could lead to similar deaths in the future.
But that isn’t how this administration operates. They don’t consider the possibility that they make mistakes. And by the time news of Martinez’s death went public earlier this year, the Good and Pretti killings had already gone down. DHS was in full propaganda mode.
Here’s how DHS responded to an inquiry about the incident from CBS News:
“We stand by the grand jury’s unanimous decision that found no criminality,” acting ICE director Todd Lyons told CBS News in a statement Saturday. “This incident was investigated from every possible angle by an independent body, and it cleared our officer.” . . .
Lyons' statement went on: "According to the investigative report done by the Texas Rangers which included analysis of multiple body cameras, footage shows Martinez 'holding a bottle of Crown Royal Whiskey' and 'rolling toward an officers location.' Officers yell 'where are you going' and 'stop him.' At this point, an officer directing traffic 'was directly in front of the Fusion' and 'only one-half a car length away.' Martinez 'rolled forward and made an immediate left turn.' The agent then 'appears to move as if he were on the vehicles hood.'"
I’ll let you judge for yourself if that’s what the videos really show.
Again, this incident wasn’t related to immigration enforcement. But it isn’t unreasonable to ask if all the MAGA propaganda about how dangerous and violent undocumented immigrants are contributed to Stevens seeing a shy, unassuming young Latino man as a threat to commit mass murder with his car.
At the very least, this administration didn’t value Martinez’s life enough to tell the public and his family — including his Trump-supporting mother — the truth about how he died. And they saw no need to look into whether his death merited trying to prevent similar deaths in the future. In the months since, they’ve continue to put themselves in front of cars, shout conflicting, confusing commands at the occupants, and kill and wound innocent people.
Previous installments of “You can’t hide your lying ICE”: