An American citizen met a tragic end at the hands of a federal agent last March, a year prior to a similar fate for two Minneapolis residents involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
Ruben Ray Martinez, aged 23, was shot and killed on March 15, 2025, in South Padre Island, Texas. This information comes from documents recently unveiled by the watchdog group American Oversight. Both the Daily Mail and Newsweek have accessed these documents, shedding light on the incident.
The comprehensive 352-page document released by American Oversight contains numerous reports labeled as ‘significant incidents’ by ICE, which had not been disclosed to the public before this.
According to a March incident report, an ICE officer shot an American citizen after the individual allegedly struck an agent with a Blue Ford 4-door vehicle.
The report indicates that Martinez was the driver of the vehicle and encountered federal agents engaged in immigration enforcement in collaboration with the South Padre Island Police Department.
The Department of Homeland Security noted in the report that several officers commanded the vehicle to halt and proceeded to encircle the Blue Ford.
‘The driver accelerated forward, striking a HSI special agent who wound upon on the hood of the vehicle,’ the incident report stated.
One of the agents then discharged ‘multiple rounds at the driver through the open driver’s side window.’
Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, pictured above in an undated photo, was fatally shot by an ICE agent on March 15, 2025, according to newly released documents
Renee Good, pictured above in an undated photo, was killed on January 7 by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and American citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 25
Martinez was transported to a hospital in Brownsville and later pronounced dead. The incident report redacted his name but identified him as a US citizen.
Local media covered the incident at the time as an ‘officer-involved shooting.’ Newsweek identified Martinez through the coverage at the time.
South Padre Island City Manager Randy Smith previously told local news outlets that officers were not the ones who fired their weapons.
DHS confirmed the shooting in a statement, adding the Ford driver ‘intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigations special agent.’
‘Upon witnessing this, another agent fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public,’ the statement added.
DHS added that the agent who was allegedly run over sustained a knee injury and was taken to the hospital.
DHS said the Texas Department of Public Safety Ranger Division was investigating the incident. The Daily Mail has reached out to the department for an update.
The department told Newsweek that the investigation is still active and that no other information is currently available.
Rachel Reyes, pictured right, told the New York Times that her son, Ruben Ray Martinez, pictured left, was a hardworking young man and disagreed with DHS’s characterization of his death
Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, confirmed to the New York Times that her son was the victim of the ICE-involved shooting.
She disputed DHS’s account of events and characterized her son as a hardworking young man with no history of trouble with the law.
‘He was a good kid. He doesn’t have a criminal history. He never got in trouble. He was never violent,’ Reyes said in a phone interview.
Martinez’s family maintained that he was complying with instructions from law enforcement officials before he was shot.
Reyes added that she didn’t ‘appreciate’ DHS’s characterization of her son and said the incident report made the events ‘sound different’ than what her family was initially told.
‘What they’re saying is different from what they told the family, so that’s adding insult to injury,’ she said.
Alex Stamm, the family’s attorney, told the New York Times that eyewitness accounts of the shooting were inconsistent with ICE’s internal report.
The attorney demanded a ‘full and fair investigation’ and asked why federal officers were present at the scene of a traffic collision.
Martinez’s family said in a statement to the Times: ‘Since Ruben’s death a year ago, all we have wanted is justice for him, and we have struggled with the silence surrounding his killing.
‘Now, the country is in crisis and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have.’
