Attorneys for Marimar Martinez, shot by a Border Patrol agent during Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago last October, called on authorities Monday to file criminal charges against the agent after a new bullet trajectory analysis showed her car was moving away from the agent when he opened fire.
“This in our opinion is not a political issue,” attorney Christopher Parente said at a news conference to announce the filing of a federal lawsuit. “We are asking the Department of Justice to do something. It’s the Department of Justice. It’s not the Department of Republicans. It’s not the Department of Democrats. They have a civil rights division specifically there to investigate things like this.”
Parente said if federal authorities refused to act, he’s hopeful that an ongoing Chicago police investigation will lead to charges being filed by Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, who has promised to have a specialized unit of prosecutors look at the evidence that’s been gathered.
The 33-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Monday afternoon landed a year and a day after Martinez, a Montessori school teacher’s aide, was seriously wounded in the Oct. 4, 2025, shooting in Brighton Park as she was heading to a local church to donate clothes.
The suit named only the United States as a defendant, since federal agents are generally barred from being sued for on-duty actions. It included seven total counts of negligence, battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and false arrest and imprisonment.
While much of the evidence presented in the lawsuit was already known, it included the results of a newly completed reconstruction of the shooting done by a nationally renowned expert hired by Martinez’s attorneys.
The expert, Jeremy Bauer, cross-referenced police body camera and surveillance footage and analyzed the bullet holes in Martinez’s vehicle and the wounds in her body to trace Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum’s position when the shots were fired, according to Martinez’s attorneys.
None of it matched Exum’s statements to the FBI that he was standing in front of her car when the shots were fired, or that he stopped firing once the vehicle had passed him and he was no longer in danger, they said.
Instead, the analysis showed Exum was standing beside Martinez’s vehicle when he fired the first three shots through the passenger side of the windshield, according to the lawsuit. As Martinez drove away from Exum, the fourth shot was fired directly through the front passenger side window, according to the analysis. The final shot broke out her rear passenger window when she was past him, hunched over the steering wheel and trying to drive away.
“We did the analysis so we had objective proof that this was a bad shoot, that everything Exum said was a lie, and most importantly Marimar is telling the truth,” said attorney Michael Gallagher, who also represents Martinez.
Though she survived the shooting, Martinez was hit with federal assault charges while still in the hospital, a case that drew national scrutiny and became a defining moment of Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s controversial immigration enforcement campaign last fall.
Prosecutors later dropped all charges after it was revealed Exum had bragged about his marksmanship to fellow agents and was allowed to drive his vehicle back to his home district in Maine before Martinez’s lawyers could have it inspected.
Seated next to her attorneys at Monday’s news conference, Martinez said she’s recovered physically from the shooting but still sees herself as a voice for others who did not survive violence by immigration officers, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both killed in Minnesota in January.
“I’m just glad to see another year, be with my family,” Martinez said. “I don’t want to be in the camera, but if I don’t then who else? Look what happened to Renee (Good) and all these victims … we shouldn’t sit here and normalize what’s happening.”
Exum was placed on administrative leave last year pending the results of an internal investigation, according to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS did not respond last week to questions about Exum’s status or the investigation, referring a reporter to the Department of Justice. A DOJ spokesperson did not respond to messages seeking comment Monday.
In breaking down the bullet trajectory analysis, Parente said he was most disturbed by the fourth and fifth shots fired by Exum, which depicted what Exum would have seen from his own viewpoint as he fired directly through the front passenger side window and then from behind as Martinez’s car pulled away.
“In what world can a U.S. law enforcement officer stand behind a car and fire his Glock service weapon through the rear passenger window at a young woman who is crouched over the steering wheel?” Parente asked. “In what world can you justify that? You can’t. Which is why he lied about it, and why they continue to lie about it.”
Martinez’s lawyers say they are not interested in settling the lawsuit and will demand a bench trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang, a former federal prosecutor who years ago presided over a trial in a controversial Chicago police shooting case, records show.
Among the most crucial evidence in Martinez’s case was body-camera footage from one of the agents in the car with Exum that day showing the tense moments just before their unmarked Chevrolet Tahoe, which was outfitted with an Uber sign, collided with her SUV.
“It’s time to get aggressive and get the (expletive) out,” one agent said as horns blared. Seconds later, Exum, who was driving with his Glock pistol in his right hand, appeared to jerk the steering wheel to the left, in the direction of Martínez’s vehicle alongside them.
“Be advised we have been struck!” one of the agents in the vehicle yells to a dispatcher. Exum then gets out of the vehicle and moves off-camera and five rapid-succession gunshots are heard. Martinez was struck by gunfire in the legs, arm and chest, but managed to drive off before calling 911.
A few hours after the shooting, then-Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino sent an email directly to Exum and others in the department commending him for his work, the evidence released earlier this year showed. “I would like to extend an offer to you to extend your retirement beyond age 57…. In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much left to do!!” it read.
That day, Homeland Security officials released statements branding Martinez, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, as an armed “domestic terrorist” who was part of a convoy attempting to box in agents that day. Exum and the two other agents with him that day later told the FBI that Martinez had rammed their vehicle and was driving toward Exum when he fired through her front windshield.
Exum, meanwhile, exchanged a series of texts with his wife as well as a group of fellow agents under the name “Posse Chat.” In one of them, someone Exum identified as “the guy from Vermont” wrote, “Good job brother, glad you are unharmed and get to live to tell the story.”
“You are a legend among agents you better (expletive) know that. Beers on me when I see you at training,” the agent texted Exum, the records show.
Martinez’s attorneys alleged the shooting was part of a broader push by the administration of President Donald Trump to use the guise of public safety to conceal a racially discriminatory agenda that targeted people of Hispanic descent with arrest and deportation — with little regard to their immigration status or criminal history.
“The promise to target dangerous undocumented criminals supplied a pretext for treating skin color and perceived foreignness as grounds for suspicion and coercion,” the lawsuit stated.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com