Tragic Shooting: 23-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Fatally Shot by ICE Agent Sparks Year-Long Investigation

An American citizen was fatally shot by a federal agent in March, almost a year before two residents of Minneapolis lost their lives in incidents involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

Ruben Ray Martinez, aged 23, was shot dead in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025. This information comes from newly unveiled documents by the watchdog group American Oversight. The documents were reviewed by the Daily Mail and initially reported by Newsweek.

This release, comprising 352 pages, was made public by American Oversight. It contains several previously undisclosed ‘significant incident’ reports from ICE, shedding light on past operations.

According to an incident report from last March, an ICE officer shot an American citizen after the individual allegedly struck an agent with a Blue Ford sedan.

Martinez was reportedly behind the wheel of the vehicle when he encountered federal agents engaged in immigration enforcement activities in collaboration with the South Padre Island Police Department.

The Department of Homeland Security said in the report that multiple officers gave commands for the vehicle to stop and surrounded the Blue Ford. 

‘The driver accelerated forward, striking a HSI special agent who wound upon on the hood of the vehicle,’ the incident report stated. 

One of the agents then discharged ‘multiple rounds at the driver through the open driver’s side window.’ 

Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, pictured above in an undated photo, was fatally shot by an ICE agent on March 15, 2025, according to newly released documents 

Renee Good, pictured above in an undated photo, was killed on January 7 by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota 

Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and American citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 25 

Martinez was transported to a hospital in Brownsville and later pronounced dead. The incident report redacted his name but identified him as a US citizen. 

Local media covered the incident at the time as an ‘officer-involved shooting.’ Newsweek identified Martinez through the coverage at the time. 

South Padre Island City Manager Randy Smith previously told local news outlets that officers were not the ones who fired their weapons.  

DHS confirmed the shooting in a statement, adding the Ford driver ‘intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigations special agent.’ 

‘Upon witnessing this, another agent fired defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public,’ the statement added. 

DHS added that the agent who was allegedly run over sustained a knee injury and was taken to the hospital.   

DHS said the Texas Department of Public Safety Ranger Division was investigating the incident. The Daily Mail has reached out to the department for an update. 

The department told Newsweek that the investigation is still active and that no other information is currently available.

Rachel Reyes, pictured right, told the New York Times that her son, Ruben Ray Martinez, pictured left, was a hardworking young man and disagreed with DHS’s characterization of his death 

Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, confirmed to the New York Times that her son was the victim of the ICE-involved shooting. 

She disputed DHS’s account of events and characterized her son as a hardworking young man with no history of trouble with the law. 

‘He was a good kid. He doesn’t have a criminal history. He never got in trouble. He was never violent,’ Reyes said in a phone interview. 

Martinez’s family maintained that he was complying with instructions from law enforcement officials before he was shot.

Reyes added that she didn’t ‘appreciate’ DHS’s characterization of her son and said the incident report made the events ‘sound different’ than what her family was initially told. 

‘What they’re saying is different from what they told the family, so that’s adding insult to injury,’ she said. 

Alex Stamm, the family’s attorney, told the New York Times that eyewitness accounts of the shooting were inconsistent with ICE’s internal report. 

The attorney demanded a ‘full and fair investigation’ and asked why federal officers were present at the scene of a traffic collision. 

Martinez’s family said in a statement to the Times:  ‘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.

‘Now, the country is in crisis and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have.’

Reyes told the Associated Press that her son had just celebrated his 23rd birthday and had driven with a friend from San Antonio to South Padre Island to celebrate.