Marimar Martinez sues the government after a federal cover-up

By Alma Cordero · Reporting from El Paso · October 6, 2026

Marimar Martinez filed a federal lawsuit after a Border Patrol agent shot her in Chicago, exposing an enforcement regime built on violence and official lies.

When a badge buys the right to shoot an innocent woman in cold blood and call it a day

Marimar Martinez was not supposed to survive the afternoon of October 4, 2025. She was heading to a local church to donate clothes in Brighton Park. An unmarked Chevrolet Tahoe collided with her SUV. It was outfitted with an Uber sign and driven by U.S. Border Patrol agent Charles Exum. This happened during the mass immigration enforcement surge known as Operation Midway Blitz. Exum stood beside and behind her car and pumped five rounds into her body. She was struck by gunfire in her legs, arm, and chest, sustaining seven wounds while sitting in her vehicle.

Federal authorities did not immediately check on her pulse or call for an ambulance. Instead, they reached for the oldest playbook in the occupation state. According to NBC News and the Chicago Tribune, they smeared her. They called this innocent U.S. citizen and Montessori school teacher an armed domestic terrorist who had attempted to ram federal agents. Prosecutors slapped her with felony assault charges.

The machinery of the state wanted her broken, silent, and convicted. But Marimar Martinez had a voice, and she refused to let them bury the truth. As she told reporters when announcing her lawsuit, if she did not speak out, who else would?

How science and leaked group chats tore down a federal cover-up

The official lie lasted until digital receipts and the laws of physics caught up with Charles Exum. They caught up with the Department of Homeland Security, too. ABC7 Chicago and Block Club Chicago reported that Martinez’s attorneys hired Jeremy Bauer. He is a forensic biomechanist and shooting reconstruction expert. He used surveillance video, body-worn camera footage, and trajectory analysis to prove that Exum was never in danger. The reconstruction showed where Exum stood. He fired the first shots through the passenger side of the windshield while standing beside the vehicle. He fired another through the front passenger side window as Martinez drove away. He fired the last through the rear passenger window while she was past him and hunched over the steering wheel.

Body camera footage and leaked text messages from a 'Posse Chat' group tore the federal defense to shreds. An agent in the vehicle with Exum was recorded shouting, 'Do something, b—.' The agent said 'it’s time to get aggressive and get the [expletive] out.' Exum showed no remorse. He bragged in a Signal chat with other agents about his marksmanship. He wrote: 'I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.' Other agents texted him congratulations, calling him a 'legend among agents' and promising 'beers on me.' Exum boasted that Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem supported him. He said 'el jefe' himself—President Donald Trump—had been supportive 'big time.' Bovino even offered to extend Exum's retirement beyond age 57. He wrote that Exum had 'much left to do!!' in light of his 'excellent service in Chicago.'

This is the exact shared mechanism we saw in the Death of Oscar Grant. Bystander or external video evidence was required to dismantle a law enforcement officer's false official account of a shooting. In that case, BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle drew his pistol and shot Grant on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. Officer Anthony Pirone had kneed Grant in the head and forced him to lie face down. Bystanders captured the events on their mobile phones. Similarly, the body-camera footage and forensic trajectory analysis in Chicago exposed the Border Patrol’s official statements as fabrications designed to protect a shooter in uniform. Federal prosecutors were forced to move to dismiss the assault charges against Martinez. A judge dismissed them with prejudice on November 20, 2025. Yet while Marimar survived, the system that nearly killed her has shielded Exum from criminal accountability. He remains on administrative leave while the Department of Justice’s civil rights division sits on its hands.

Holding the machinery accountable when the Department of Justice looks away

On Monday, October 5, 2026, Marimar Martinez filed a federal civil lawsuit against the U.S. government. She filed the complaint under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Attorneys Christopher Parente and Michael Gallagher represent her. She seeks monetary damages. The lawsuit alleges negligence, battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, false arrest, and malicious prosecution.

The civil suit is a necessary step, but it is not justice. It is a financial reckoning paid out of the public treasury. These crimes are committed by men who wear badges and view urban neighborhoods like foreign combat zones. We have watched this impunity before. In the tragic death of Breonna Taylor, excessive force was met with institutional circling of the wagons and bureaucratic delays. The federal government brands an innocent citizen a terrorist to cover up a bad shoot. DHS leadership praises the triggerman as a legend. They are telling every community that no one is safe from the armed enforcers of the state.

Marimar Martinez survived five bullets and a federal smear campaign. Now she is demanding a reckoning that the Department of Justice is too cowardly to initiate on its own. Charles Exum belongs in a prison cell facing criminal charges for attempted murder and assault under color of law. He should not be sitting at home collecting a paycheck on administrative leave while federal officials protect him. Justice requires that the U.S. government drop its shield of absolute immunity. Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke must pursue state criminal indictments without hesitation. This country must stop normalizing the violence of a border regime that treats its own citizens as enemy combatants.

Marimar Martinez sues the government after a federal cover-up

When a badge buys the right to shoot an innocent woman in cold blood and call it a day

How science and leaked group chats tore down a federal cover-up

Holding the machinery accountable when the Department of Justice looks away

Sources