Months before Renee Good’s killing at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis set off nationwide protests, a federal officer shot and killed another American citizen in his car in South Texas, according to internal reports made public this week.
The victim, Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot multiple times in South Padre Island by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after he did not follow commands to exit his vehicle, according to internal ICE documents reviewed by The New York Times. ICE’s connection to the shooting was first reported by Newsweek this week.
The episode, which occurred around 12:40 a.m. on March 15, 2025, was reported by local media at the time as a shooting carried out by a law enforcement officer. It was not clear which agency was involved until the internal incident reports were made public this week.
The documents did not name the officers involved in the encounter, but the description of the victim matched that of Mr. Martinez. Charles Stam, a lawyer for the Martinez family, confirmed that his client was the victim mentioned in the ICE report.
Mr. Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, described her son as a hard-working young man who did not have a history of confronting law enforcement officials. In a phone interview, she said that her son was celebrating his birthday in South Padre Island with a friend he had known since elementary school when he was killed, five days after he turned 23. Ms. Reyes said her son worked at an Amazon warehouse in San Antonio.
“He was a good kid. He doesn’t have a criminal history,” she said, adding: “He never got in trouble. He was never violent.”
The ICE documents state that Homeland Security Investigation agents from Harlingen, Texas, were helping the South Padre Island Police Department control traffic near a car accident when a blue Ford approached the area.
Mr. Martinez initially did not follow officers’ instructions but eventually slowed to a stop after receiving verbal commands. Agents surrounded the vehicle and told him to get out of the car before Mr. Martinez accelerated and hit a federal agent who landed on the roof of the car, according to the documents. Another agent then fired multiple times through the driver’s side window. Mr. Martinez was transported to a hospital in Brownsville and later died.
When asked about Mr. Martinez’s killing, the Department of Homeland Security described the shooting as an act of self-defense, saying the agent had “fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public” after the driver “ran over” a Homeland Security Investigation special agent.
The agent who was hit by Mr. Martinez’s vehicle was released from the hospital after he was treated for a knee injury, according to the incident report.
In the more recent killings in Minneapolis of Ms. Good and Alex Pretti, another U.S. citizen who was also killed by an immigration agent, official accounts were later challenged by videos recorded by bystanders. No footage of Mr. Martinez’s killing has surfaced.
In a statement, Mr. Stam and Alex Stamm, another lawyer for the family, said that eyewitness accounts were not consistent with the government’s report and called for accountability.
“It is critical that there is a full and fair investigation into why H.S.I. was present at the scene of a traffic collision and why a federal officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen as he was trying to comply with instructions from the local law enforcement officers directing traffic,” they said.
Ms. Reyes also said she disagreed with the government’s description of her son.
“What they’re saying is different from what they told the family, so that’s adding insult to injury,” she said, without elaborating. “They are making it sound different. I don’t appreciate their language.”
Mr. Martinez is at least the third U.S. citizen who was shot and killed by federal immigration officers since the start of President Trump’s second term. His presidency has been marked by a significant push to maximize deportations.
Ms. Good, a Minneapolis mother, was killed in her car by masked federal agents on Jan. 7, and Mr. Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was killed on a South Minneapolis street on Jan. 24 during a surge of immigration agents in the Twin Cities. Bystander videos of both killings circulated quickly and helped fuel protests across the country.
Since September, federal agents have fired at vehicles at least 10 times in six different cities. Two of the shootings were fatal.
An immigration enforcement agent is supposed to use deadly force only if the officer “has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury,” according to the Homeland Security Department’s policy. The policy also states that officers should avoid placing themselves in positions in which they have no other option but to use deadly force.
The shooting of Mr. Martinez is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, a state agency that reviews shootings involving law enforcement officers and oversees border security for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Sheridan Nolen, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety, said in an email on Friday that the investigation was ongoing, but declined to provide any additional information.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the city of South Padre Island directed questions about the shooting to the Texas Rangers. The statement confirmed that an officer involved shooting “by an outside agency” took place on March 15 while officers were responding to a traffic accident.
One incident report in the ICE documents indicated that the driver had appeared intoxicated or impaired. It also said that the passenger, whose identity is unknown, also appeared intoxicated or impaired and was arrested by the South Padre Island police. The police did not respond to requests for comment.
According to Ms. Reyes, the information in the ICE documents is different from what the family was initially told, though she declined to provide further details.
“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,” Ms. Reyes said in a statement sent by her lawyers. “Now, the country is in crisis and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have.”
Emma Schartz and Alexandra Berzon contributed reporting. Georgia Gee contributed research.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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