Body camera footage made public for the first time is challenging official accounts of how a federal immigration officer fatally shot an American citizen during a traffic stop in Texas last year.
The video evidence, released Friday through public records requests, shows the final moments of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez’s life during what began as a routine spring break trip to South Padre Island in March 2025.
Federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security initially claimed Martinez deliberately struck an agent with his vehicle before Homeland Security Investigations Supervisory Special Agent Jack Stevens opened fire. However, the newly available body camera recordings don’t clearly support that version of events.
The shooting marked the first of at least six deadly encounters involving federal agents since President Trump intensified immigration enforcement efforts during his second administration. Multiple cases have seen initial government explanations contradicted by later video evidence.
A Texas grand jury last week chose not to bring criminal charges against Stevens, allowing the Texas Rangers to close their investigation into the March 15 incident, according to state public safety records.
In his official report, Stevens stated he discharged his weapon to safeguard other agents, local police, and civilians from what he perceived as a possible terrorist attack designed to cause mass harm. A DHS representative said previously that the federal agent fired in self-defense after Martinez “intentionally ran over” another officer, leaving that agent “on the hood of the vehicle.”
The body camera recordings, captured from positions behind Martinez’s vehicle, fail to clearly document any agent being struck by the car.
Additional footage captures Joshua Orta, Martinez’s passenger, explaining to investigators that his friend never meant to hurt law enforcement but had “panicked” due to fears of arrest for drunk driving.
“He didn’t know what to do. Like he definitely didn’t want to go to jail,” Orta explained. “But as far as like running over an officer … he wouldn’t do that.”
DHS representatives have not responded to media requests for comment regarding the video footage.
Although local news initially reported the shooting involved a police officer, DHS kept its agents’ involvement secret until media organizations, including the Associated Press, revealed it last month.
Martinez had recently celebrated his 23rd birthday when he and Orta traveled from San Antonio to the popular spring break destination. After drinking with friends and using marijuana, they were returning to town when the incident occurred, Orta told investigators.
Martinez was behind the wheel of his blue Ford sedan when they encountered South Padre police directing traffic around a two-vehicle crash at a busy intersection just after midnight. Three HSI agents from a maritime border security unit, reassigned to immigration enforcement duties, were also present at the scene.
Police body camera footage shows Martinez’s sedan slowly approaching the intersection, apparently continuing straight while other vehicles were being directed to turn left. The car nearly stops completely for pedestrians in the crosswalk, then slowly enters the intersection before halting again as HSI agents approach while shouting stop commands.
Special Agent Hector Sosa, according to official documents, positioned himself in front of the vehicle. Stevens approached the driver’s side and reached toward the door.
“Get him out, get him out,” an officer can be heard yelling.
Martinez’s car began moving slowly forward while turning left, following the path other vehicles had taken. Stevens, staying alongside the driver’s side, appeared to lean toward the open window. As officers continued shouting for Martinez to stop, Stevens drew his weapon and quickly fired three rounds through the window before stepping back.
“Shots fired, shots fired,” a police officer with a body camera radioed.
The entire confrontation lasted approximately 15 seconds.
The blue Ford immediately stopped, and multiple officers pulled Martinez from the vehicle and handcuffed him. Orta was also removed from the passenger seat and restrained.
Martinez remained motionless on the ground in handcuffs for roughly one minute before paramedics, already at the scene for the earlier accident, began providing medical assistance.
Medical examiner findings revealed all three of Stevens’ shots struck Martinez, with bullets passing through his left arm into his torso, damaging his heart, lungs, liver, and other vital organs. The autopsy also found Martinez’s blood alcohol content was 0.12%, exceeding Texas’s 0.08% legal driving limit.
In a three-page statement given to Texas Rangers nearly two months after the shooting, Stevens claimed he fired as Martinez “accelerated forward, striking Special Agent Sosa who wound up on the hood of the vehicle.” He also said he barely avoided being hit himself, struck by the driver’s side “causing the mirror to break off of the vehicle.” Crime scene photos showed the mirror damaged but still attached to the car.
The agent said recent events were “still fresh on his mind” as he fired, including a New Year’s incident weeks earlier when someone drove a truck into crowds in New Orleans.
“The driver’s eyes were open widely, fist clenched to the steering wheel, and he was looking past the officers on scene as he failed to comply with the loud and repeated verbal commands of multiple law enforcement officers,” Stevens wrote. “This is a behavior I have observed in my training and experience as a pre attack indicator and sign of noncompliance as the suspect is looking in the path of their intended movement and is not indicative of compliance. This path of movement, if left unmitigated, would, using the vehicle as a weapon, have resulted in numerous casualties.”
An internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation reported the agent allegedly struck by the car received treatment for an unspecified knee injury at a local hospital and was released. The new video footage shows this same agent arresting Orta after the shooting and walking without any apparent injury or limp.
Orta told investigators Martinez had consumed several alcoholic drinks and a beer earlier that evening, plus marijuana, when they reached the traffic checkpoint where the earlier accident had occurred.
An officer noticed an open alcoholic beverage near Martinez but directed the car to continue moving and turn left. Instead, Martinez drove straight toward the accident scene and additional officers.
“That’s when he panicked and turned the wheel, and he didn’t floor the gas but we kind of went a little bit and I guess they thought he was like trying to run the cop over or something,” Orta said.
Orta described their car coming to a “full stop” initially, then Martinez turning left with the vehicle “barely moving.”
“I saw the officer kind of get on the hood. Like he didn’t hit him, but like he kind of like, you know what I mean, caught his feet,” Orta said. “It was just slowly moving and they started shooting.”
Orta died February 21 in an automobile accident in San Antonio.
Attorneys representing Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, issued a statement saying the newly released videos and evidence demonstrated his car was barely moving when Stevens fired at close range.
“This batch of evidence shows no justification for Ruben’s killing,” lawyers Charles M. Stam and Alex Stamm said. “Still, our pursuit of full transparency will continue until we have all the facts. We, and the public, have yet to see all of the evidence held by the government.”
