Family of Ruben Ray Martinez Demands Answers After Grand Jury Declines to Indict ICE Agent Who Killed Him

Attorneys for the family of Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old US citizen who was fatally shot by a Homeland Security Investigations agent last March in South Padre Island, Texas, called for state authorities to release the findings of their investigation into the killing after a grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict the officer who shot the young man.

The lawyers also said that it was not clear whether the grand jury had viewed a draft affidavit signed by the only other passenger in the car Martinez was driving when he was shot, which disputed the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) account of the incident, or footage of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent "dragging Ruben onto the ground and handcuffing him immediately after shooting him three times."

"We believe that it is essential now that the Texas Department of Public Safety publicly disclose the full findings of their investigation, so that Ruben’s family and the public can determine for themselves whether ICE’s story is accurate and why Ruben was killed that night,” said the attorneys with the law firms Thompson Stam and Hayes Law. “We have sought that information, and we will continue to do so... Today’s event changes nothing.”

Luis V. Saenz, the district attorney of Cameron County, said in a statement that the grand jury had declined to bring charges, while a spokesperson for DHS said the jury had “unanimously found no criminality.”

The decision was handed down days after the other passenger in Martinez's car, his friend Joshua Orta, was killed in an unrelated car crash after the vehicle he was driving reportedly left the road and struck a utility pole at high speed.

Orta had been planning to assist Martinez's mother, Rachel Reyes, in her legal fight and provided a written statement to her lawyers saying that when he and Martinez encountered Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents who were conducting immigration enforcement with local police on March 15, 2025, the officers gave Martinez conflicting orders.

Orta wrote that contrary to HSI's account, he and Martinez were approached by a police officer who told them to leave the area. Martinez tried turning the car and another officer approached them, slapped the hood of the vehicle, and "seemed to be trying to get in front of the car," according to his affidavit.

He wrote that Martinez's car was "only crawling" during the encounter, when an officer on the driver's side of the vehicle drew his weapon and fired without “giving any warning, commands, or opportunity to comply.”

Martinez “did not hit anyone," said Orta in the statement.

Reyes told the Associated Press last week that her son was shot three times.

Internal documents at HSI, an office within ICE, conflicted with Orta's account and said Martinez initially declined instructions to stop driving, then "accelerated forward" and struck an HSI agent “who wound up on the hood of the vehicle.”

Another supervisory HSI agent then fatally shot Martinez, according to the documents.

DHS also said in a statement that an agent fired “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.”

Martinez's death was reported in local news outlets last March, but it was not until the watchdog group American Oversight filed a public records request and published federal documents that it was publicly known that a federal agent had killed the young man.

The family's lawyers told the Washington Post that they expect to soon be able to view footage of the shooting from body cameras worn by South Padre Island police, who have declined to publicly release video evidence of shooting due to the Texas Department of Public Safety's investigation. That probe will likely end due to the grand jury's decision.

“Ruben’s family is devastated,” the attorneys said in a statement. “They are proud Americans, strong supporters of law enforcement, and Trump voters. They believe there are honest and decent officers out there. They just want to be treated honestly and decently.”

American Oversight also said it had filed Freedom of Information Act requests for police footage and internal communications regarding the killing.

Reyes expressed hope in a statement Wednesday that "attention being raised now into Ruben’s death will help bring the justice we want for him and the answers we haven’t had.”

“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,” she said. “Now, the country is in crisis and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have."

Martinez is one of at least four US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration agents since President Donald Trump began his anti-immigration crackdown soon after taking office in January 2025.

In a running tracker, the American Prospect has counted at least 27 people who have been killed by federal immigration agents under the second Trump administration, including in shootings, car crashes, and drownings. At least 46 people have died while in ICE custody, according to TAP.