A grand jury did not find probable cause to issue an indictment in the fatal shooting of a man last year on South Padre Island by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said his office presented the case on Wednesday and the jury issued a no bill. Prosecutors can pursue a criminal case after a no bill but rarely do so.
Agents assigned to a Department of Homeland Security subagency fatally shot 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez of San Antonio multiple times in the early hours of March 15 as they helped local police direct traffic at the scene of an auto accident, records released by American Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog, show.
Martinez was at Padre Island that weekend celebrating his birthday with friends, said Will Miller, a spokesperson for Martinez’s family and their lawyers.
In a statement Friday, DHS confirmed the shooting and accused Martinez of “intentionally” running over an agent, who was taken to a hospital for a knee injury and later released, according to records of the incident. Local media reported on the shooting, but it was not clear until last week that federal immigration officers were involved.
“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,” his mother, Rachel Reyes, said in a statement. “Now, the country is in crisis — and, terribly, heartbreakingly, other families are enduring what we have. It’s my hope 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.”
On Saturday, the only passenger in the vehicle during Martinez’s shooting died in an auto accident in San Antonio, according to the Associated Press. Police said the vehicle Joshua Orta was driving left the road and struck a utility pole at a high rate of speed. His passengers survived the fiery crash.
According to a draft of Orta’s affidavit obtained by the AP, Orta said Martinez “did not hit anyone” with his vehicle.
At least half a dozen other people have died during the nations’ immigration crackdown under the Trump administration, including two U.S. citizens — Alex Pretti and Renee Good — who were fatally shot by ICE and Border Patrol agents in Minnesota earlier this year, sparking nationwide protests.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.