Crime & Law

Marimar Martinez Hopes New Lawsuit Could Spur Criminal Charges 1 Year After Border Patrol Agent Shot Her

Marimar Martinez, the Montessori school teacher who survived being shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Brighton Park last year during “Operation Midway Blitz,” has filed a new lawsuit and hopes prosecutors could still bring criminal charges against the man who shot her.

Almost a year to the day after Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum shot Martinez, her attorneys on Monday announced the filing of a federal lawsuit they hope will put pressure on local and federal prosecutors to bring charges.

“I want to spread awareness because what’s happening is not normal,” Martinez said at a news conference Monday. “We shouldn’t sit here and normalize what’s happening. And I’m not gonna sit here.”

The lawsuit names only the United States as a defendant and includes charges of negligence, battery, assault, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and infliction of emotional distress.

Martinez filed a report with the Chicago Police Department in August, and her attorneys on Monday said a detective has been assigned to investigate. If the CPD brings evidence to Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s office, charges could eventually be filed against Exum.

While that investigation appears to be progressing, Martinez’s attorney Chris Parente said they’ve gotten no updates on a federal investigation into the shooting.

Exum, who was placed on leave by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this year, shot Martinez five times after the agent allegedly rammed his vehicle into Martinez’s car near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue.

According to Parente, Exum shot Marimar without justification then lied to the FBI during their investigation into the incident as federal officials spread falsehoods to defend his conduct and vilify Martinez.

“How can they treat Chicago citizens one way and treat their own agents a completely other way,” Parente said, referencing the swift charges the Trump administration has brought against nonviolent protesters. “Somebody needs to do something at this point and bring accountability for what happened here.”

Martinez survived the shooting and was charged with assaulting the agents, but federal prosecutors moved to dismiss that case with prejudice just weeks later.

After the charges were dropped, Parente pushed for a federal judge to release sealed evidence from the case, which was eventually published early this year.

Martinez’s attorneys on Monday said they hired a national expert to recreate the shooting based on the bullet holes found in Martinez’s vehicle.

Parente alleged Exum lied to federal investigators when he claimed that he fired five shots through Martinez’s windshield as she drove directly at him, as the government’s own evidence allegedly showed 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 showed one agent saying, “We’re going to make contact, we’re boxed in,” just before Exum, who was driving, appeared to swerve the SUV to the left, colliding into Martinez’s vehicle.

The agents quickly exited and five gunshots can be heard offscreen. Exum’s body camera was not activated at the time of the shooting.

Parente said the evidence also shows agents lied about being boxed in.

“In what world could you justify that?” Parente said. “You can’t, which is why he lied about it, why they continue to lie about it, why they lied about being boxed in. They had to justify a bad shoot.”

Martinez on Monday said she’s continuing to try and heal emotionally and physically.

She has recounted the shooting numerous times over the past year, including before the Illinois Accountability Commission and Congress in Washington, D.C. She said she was on her way to drop off a donation of clothes 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 swerved into her vehicle before they pulled over near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue.

Martinez said she tried to swerve away from the agents and drove past them, but as she did so, she began feeling a “burning sensation” in her arms and legs. Thinking she’d been struck with pepper balls, Martinez continued driving away before hearing her back passenger window shatter.

Martinez drove to a nearby repair shop and was taken from there into a hospital. When she came to, she learned she was being charged with assaulting the agents.

Despite Martinez’s criminal charges being voluntarily dismissed by federal prosecutors, a publicly available press statement that remains on the DHS website still labels Martinez as a “domestic terrorist” who “rammed federal agents” with her vehicle.

The accountability commission — which was created by Gov. JB Pritzker to document alleged abuses committed by federal immigration agents — determined earlier this year Exum had no justification when he shot Martinez.

Pritzker on Sunday said in a social media post that Martinez “deserves true justice and accountability from the federal government.”

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