CHICAGO – An American woman shot by a Customs and Border Protection agent during a sweeping immigration enforcement operation in Chicago last year sued the federal government Monday, accusing the agent of misrepresenting the shooting and firing into her vehicle from behind.
Federal prosecutors initially accused Marimar Martinez, then 30, of using her vehicle to hit and trap agent Charles Exum’s SUV on Chicago’s Southwest Side on Oct. 4, 2025, during “Operation Midway Blitz.” Exum left his vehicle and opened fire, striking Martinez seven times.
But prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges the following month, abruptly reversing course in a closely watched case in the nation’s third-largest city.
Attorneys say agent fired into vehicle from behind
Martinez’s attorneys said Monday that an expert’s analysis of the bullet paths and her injuries showed Exum was not in the path of her vehicle when he began shooting. They said he had walked several feet toward the car, contradicting statements he gave the FBI, and fired five rounds in less than a second. The final shot, they said, came from the rear of the 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,” attorney Chris Parente said.
Parente said Martinez’s windshield had only three bullet holes, all on the right passenger side, suggesting she was not driving directly at Exum. He said a fourth round entered through the front passenger-side window, while a bullet hole in the back of Martinez’s seat indicated the fifth shot was fired 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.
In a statement to The Associated Press, CBP said Exum had been placed on administrative leave. The agency said use-of-force incidents are “thoroughly investigated, reviewed, and presented” to an independent board.
Exum is not named as a defendant because the lawsuit, filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, does not permit claims against individual agents. It was not immediately known where he could be reached.
According to the complaint, body-camera footage from another agent in Exum’s vehicle captured agents saying it was “time to get aggressive.” The recording also included profanity-laced remarks from agents at the scene encouraging violence, the complaint said.
Lawsuit says Martinez was taken from hospital with bullet holes ‘leaking blood’
The FBI arrested Martinez only hours after the shooting, removing her from the hospital while she was “wheelchair bound and her bullet holes were leaking blood through her bandages,” the lawsuit says. A judge ordered her released two days later.
Messages released by Martinez’s attorneys in February showed that former Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino praised Exum for his “excellent service in Chicago” after the shooting. Other messages showed agents in a group chat congratulating Exum and describing him as a “legend.”
Martinez was among several people shot in their vehicles 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, while another agent shot a Colombian driver in Biddeford, Maine, in July. The Trump administration has sometimes defended such shootings as self-defense, arguing that the vehicles were being used as weapons.
Martinez appeared with her attorneys at a news conference Monday and said the series of shootings motivated her to bring the lawsuit.
“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 fatally shot 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
