Politics
Illinois Accountability Commission Finds No Justification for Shooting of Marimar Martinez by Federal Agent
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent takes part in an early morning operation in Park Ridge, Ill., Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo / Erin Hooley)
An Illinois commission created to document alleged abuses committed by federal immigration agents has determined a Border Patrol agent had no justification when he shot Marimar Martinez in Brighton Park last year.
During its final public hearing, the Illinois Accountability Commission on Tuesday heard extensively from Martinez and her attorney, recounting her shooting and the lies federal agents allegedly told after the fact to defend their shooting of the 31-year-old Montessori school teacher in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago last October.
After conducting its own investigation, the commission determined there is reasonable cause to believe the agent who shot Martinez did so without justification, that evidence was deliberately tampered with, that federal agents deployed chemical weapons against Chicagoans indiscriminately and that the Department of Homeland Security failed to ensure any accountability for those actions.
“This is an extraordinary and profoundly alarming pattern of events,” Jimmy Arce, an attorney and member of the commission, said Tuesday, “not procedural lapses or technical errors, but consistent intention violations of the law and deliberate institutional cover-up.”
Gov. JB Pritzker created the Accountability Commission in October, tasking it with creating a “public record of abuses” committed by the president, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino during last year’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”
The commission has spent the last several months collecting evidence and witness testimony and is set to issue its final report Thursday.
Martinez, who survived being shot five times, has repeatedly shared her recollection of the shooting before Congress in Washington D.C. and again before the commission Tuesday.
She said she was on her way to drop off a clothing donation to her local church when she saw a Border Patrol vehicle and began to tail it in an attempt to warn others around her of their presence in the area.
After following the vehicle for more than 15 minutes, Martinez said the driver — later identified as Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum — swerved into her vehicle before they pulled over near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue.
Martinez said she stopped briefly then tried to swerve away from the agents and drive past them, but as she did so, she “shrugged” down while seeing Exum exit the SUV with a gun and then heard gunshots.
Martinez told the commission the last thing she remembered was looking down and seeing her hand and arm covered in blood.
“I don’t want to die,” she said Tuesday when asked what was going through her head as she called 911 for help.
Included in the evidence presented Tuesday was never-before-heard testimony from an anonymous eyewitness to Martinez’s shooting who backed up her accounting of the incident.
That witness, a woman whose testimony was heard only through snippets presented by the commission, said Exum fired at Martinez without provocation and that the federal agents on scene never appeared to be under any sort of attack.
After a crowd of protesters and residents gathered following the shooting, federal agents deployed at least 15 rounds of chemical weapons against the crowd and 27 Chicago police officers.
Arce said this “widespread mayhem” agents allegedly unleashed marked the largest deployment of chemical weapons in Chicago in almost 60 years.
After the shooting, the anonymous witness said Chicago police officers warned her and others to “be careful” because they had no idea what the agents were capable of.
“You could see the frustration … that there was this group of military personnel that came and just disrupted our Saturday,” the witness said. “It was insane.”
Martinez was charged with assaulting the agents, but federal prosecutors moved to dismiss that case with prejudice just weeks later. Still, in publicly available statements on the DHS website, Martinez is described as a “domestic terrorist” who “ambushed” the agents.
Martinez’s attorney, Christopher Parente, has said evidence shows Exum lied to federal investigators when he claimed that he fired five shots through Martinez’s windshield as she drove directly at him. According to Parente, the government’s evidence shows one bullet hit the rear passenger window and another bullet traveled from the rear of the vehicle to the front.
Footage from inside the agents’ SUV instead shows one agent saying “It’s time to get aggressive and get the f--k out” before another says “We’re going to make contact, we’re boxed in” just before the agent driving appears to swerve the SUV to the left, making contact with Martinez’s vehicle.
Exum’s body camera was not activated at the time of the shooting. He has since been placed on administrative leave, but has not been charged with any crimes.
“Clearly the agents were lying, so where’s the follow-up investigation?” Parente said before the commission Tuesday.
He called Martinez on Tuesday an “absolute warrior.”
“To me,” he said, “she is a hero.”
