An American citizen was shot dead by Immigration and Customs Enforcement months before the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota, records have shown.
Ruben Ray Martinez was killed during a traffic stop on South Padre Island in Texas last March, several outlets, citing documents obtained by nonprofit watchdog American Oversight, reported.
Martinez had just turned 23, and he and his best friend were driving from San Antonio to South Padre Island to celebrate, his mother, Rachel Reyes, told the Associated Press.
Shortly after midnight on March 15, 2025, a driver, confirmed by family to be Martinez, and a passenger in a blue Ford were passing through an intersection where Homeland Security Investigations officers had been helping South Padre Island police redirect traffic after an accident, according to an internal ICE incident report included in the new release of documents.
Reyes confirmed to the Associated Press that the victim in the report was her son, and Charles Stam, a lawyer for Martinez’s family, also confirmed Martinez was the one killed to The New York Times.
Agents surrounded Martinez’s car and ordered him and the passenger to get out, according to the report. Martinez “accelerated forward” and hit an HSI special agent, “who wound up on the hood of the vehicle,” the report said.
An HSI supervisory special agent then fired multiple times through the open driver’s side window, according to the report.
Martinez was taken to a hospital and later died, the report said. The HSI agent hit by the car was treated for a knee injury, according to the report.
“It was his first time getting to go out of town,” Reyes said of her son. “He was a nice guy, humble guy. And he wasn’t a violent person at all.”
It’s unclear why Martinez was stopped in the first place.
Without confirming the identity of the victim, the Department of Homeland Security said a federal agent had fatally shot a man that day in March to “protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.”
“A driver of a blue Ford intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent resulting in him being on the hood of the vehicle. Upon witnessing this, another agent fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public,” a DHS spokesperson told The Independent. “This incident is under active investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety Ranger Division.”
According to the Associated Press, Martinez’s death is one of at least six fatal shootings by federal immigration agents since the start of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has grown increasingly unpopular.
The Trump administration sparked nationwide backlash over the deaths of Good, a mom of three, and Pretti, an ICU nurse. Both were gunned down by federal agents in the streets of Minneapolis last month. Both were 37-year-old U.S. citizens.
Both shootings have been framed by the Trump administration as self-defense, a claim that has been scrutinized.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, while just 38 percent approve, the lowest level since the president returned to the White House.
