According to the
criminal complaint filed in the case, the government says that the convoy of vehicles followed the CBP agents “closely” and pursued them “aggressively”. They claim that Martinez and Ruiz drove into and struck the CBP vehicle, “leading to a temporary loss of control” of the car.
“After being struck and boxed in by the Martinez and Ruiz Vehicles,” prosecutors say an agent exited the vehicle. The complaint alleges that Martinez then drove her car northbound in the direction of the agent, at which point, the agent “proceeded to fire approximately five shots from his service weapon at the driver of the Martinez Vehicle”.
The complaint alleges that Martinez fled the scene and was later found at a repair shop about a mile away. She was transported to hospital and treated for gunshot wounds.
Federal officials with the Department of Homeland Security
said Martinez was armed with a semi-automatic weapon at the time of the incident and had allegedly doxed – or published sensitive identifying information about – agents online the week prior. However, the criminal complaint does not mention her being armed.
During a detention hearing on Monday, the
Chicago Sun-Times reported that Martinez’s defense attorney, Christopher Parente, challenged the government’s account of the incident, and claimed that the body-camera footage shows an officer saying to Martinez, “Do something, bytch,” before firing at her.
Parente at the hearing also
said that the footage showed the officer driving the vehicle suddenly “turn the wheel to the left” then jump out and “just start shooting”, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“What I do know is – it was Ms Martinez who has seven holes in her body from five shots from this agent, who fired within seconds of getting out of this vehicle,” Parente said, as the Tribune reported.
The body camera footage has not been made public.
At the same hearing,
the Chicago Tribune reported, assistant US attorney Sean Hennessy described Martinez and Ruiz’s actions as “extremely dangerous and extremely reckless”.
The Tribune
reported that Hennessy also said that the body-camera footage also recorded agents saying: “We’re getting boxed in! We gotta get out of here! She’s going to make contact,” before the car was indeed struck.
According to the
Tribune, Hennessy also mentioned in the hearing that Martinez had a loaded gun in her purse at the time of the incident. He reportedly said that she has a concealed-carry permit and acknowledged that she did not brandish the gun during the interaction.