Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum Shooting: Investigation and Civil Claim

Charles Exum Jr., a U.S. Border Patrol supervisory agent, shot 31-year-old Chicago teaching assistant Marimar Martinez five times on October 4, 2025, during a confrontation in the Brighton Park neighborhood while he was deployed to the city for Operation Midway Blitz. Federal prosecutors initially charged Martinez with assaulting federal officers, but those charges were dismissed with prejudice after body camera footage and text messages contradicted the government’s account. As of mid-2026, Exum is on administrative leave and under criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana. No charges have been filed against him.¹

What Happened on October 4, 2025

Martinez, a U.S. citizen, was driving near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue when she encountered an SUV carrying three federal immigration agents, one of them Exum. She followed the vehicle, honking and shouting “La migra” to warn neighbors that immigration agents were in the area, according to her account and her attorney.²

The government first alleged that Martinez “aggressively and erratically” pursued the agents and rammed their SUV. Her defense attorney, Christopher Parente, said the opposite happened: Exum swerved into her lane and sideswiped her car.³ Six seconds after the vehicles collided, Exum stepped out and fired five rounds. Martinez was hit in her lower left leg, her upper right thigh twice, her right breast, and her right forearm. She drove roughly a mile to a mechanic’s shop, where someone called 911. She was hospitalized, discharged within hours into FBI custody, and later re-hospitalized after bleeding through her bandages.⁴

Martinez had a licensed handgun in a holster inside her purse. It was snapped closed. She was never charged with a weapons offense.² The permanent injuries include nerve damage in her right hand that prevents her from bending some fingers.⁵

The Body Camera and Text Message Evidence

Exum’s own body camera was off during the shooting. He testified it was resting on his vest on the front passenger seat. Footage from another agent’s camera in the same vehicle, released months later, showed Exum sharply turning the steering wheel to the left just before impact. Agents in the SUV are heard saying, “It’s time to get aggressive and get the f— out, because they’re trying to box us in.”⁶ Another agent is heard saying, “Do something, b—-,” with his finger on his trigger.⁴

Once Exum turned his own camera on, he told other officers, “We did not get shot at, we did the shooting,” and said he had fired “five to seven rounds.” Another officer responded, “Good, as long as you can justify it.”⁷ A different agent advised Exum to “keep your mouth shut” and “don’t give statements to anybody.”⁴

Court-ordered release of Exum’s text messages produced further damaging material. He wrote to friends, family, and fellow agents: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.” The day after the shooting, he wrote, “I’m up for another round of ‘f–k around and find out,'” followed by “lmao.”⁸ Pressed in court about the “five shots, seven holes” message, Exum told the judge, “I am a firearms instructor and I take pride in my shooting skills.”³

About four hours after the shooting, CBP Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino emailed Exum offering to extend his retirement past age 57, writing, “In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much yet left to do!!”⁸

Why the Case Against Martinez Was Dismissed

Martinez and a co-defendant, Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers, a felony carrying up to 20 years. DHS publicly called them “domestic terrorists” who had “ambushed” agents and described Exum’s gunfire as “defensive.”³ Martinez pleaded not guilty.⁹

The case unraveled in front of U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis. The central problem was the government’s handling of Exum’s SUV. After the shooting, Exum drove the damaged vehicle roughly 1,000 miles to his home duty station in Maine, where a mechanic worked on it, before it was returned to Chicago. Martinez’s car stayed impounded as evidence. Prosecutors first called Exum’s SUV his “personal vehicle,” then acknowledged it was part of the official Border Patrol fleet.³

Martinez’s attorneys also produced Flock Safety surveillance images they said showed she and Ruiz had never crossed paths before the incident, contradicting the government’s coordinated-ambush theory.²

On November 20, 2025, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss all charges against both defendants, citing an ongoing evaluation of facts related to Operation Midway Blitz. Judge Alexakis granted the dismissal with prejudice, barring the government from refiling.¹⁰ After the dismissal, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin continued to say Martinez had rammed agents, and DHS websites still labeled her a “domestic terrorist” into 2026.¹¹

Attorney Parente also testified at an April 28, 2026 hearing of the Illinois Accountability Commission that Exum’s partner had prepared a “fake diagram” of the incident and given it to an FBI agent, part of what Parente called a cover-up.¹²

The Criminal Investigation Into Exum

Once the case against Martinez collapsed, federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Exum. The matter is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana, which took it over after prosecutors identified credibility issues with Exum’s testimony in the Martinez proceedings. A spokesperson for that office declined to comment, citing the “pending investigation.”¹

As of mid-2026, no criminal charges have been filed against Exum. U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed he was placed on administrative leave. The agency did not say when the leave began or whether it remains in effect.¹³ Martinez’s vehicle was still being held by the government as part of the investigation as of February 2026.¹

Who Charles Exum Is

Exum has served in immigration enforcement since 2005, giving him roughly two decades of experience at the time of the shooting. He holds the rank of supervisory agent and is a certified firearms instructor.¹⁴ He is permanently stationed in Maine and was in Chicago on a temporary duty assignment tied to Operation Midway Blitz, the federal immigration enforcement campaign that ran from September to December 2025. He testified that the Martinez shooting was his first use-of-force incident in his career.¹

In a group chat with fellow agents after the shooting, Exum claimed that senior DHS officials, including “Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself,” had been supportive of him. One agent in the chat called him “a legend among agents.”⁴

Martinez’s Civil Claim

On February 11, 2026, Martinez’s attorneys filed a Federal Tort Claims Act complaint against the Department of Homeland Security, the required first step before a civil rights lawsuit. Her legal team, led by Chris Parente and Michael Gallagher, said they intend to seek “tens of millions of dollars in damages” from Exum and his supervisors, and plan to file the full suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois after a mandatory six-month waiting period.¹⁵

1
ABC 7 Chicago. Criminal Investigation Ongoing Into Border Patrol Agent Who Shot Chicago Woman
2
Capitol News Illinois. Judge Rules to Release Evidence in Border Patrol Shooting of Marimar Martinez
3
CNN. Marimar Martinez Shooting Case What We Know
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ABC News. New Footage Appears to Counter Government Claims in CBP Shooting
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U.S. Senate – Blumenthal. Marimar Martinez Statement
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NBC News. Marimar Martinez Border Patrol Exum Body Cam Texts Released
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CNN. Chicago Border Patrol Shooting Video Evidence
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NBC Chicago. Newly Released Evidence Shows Texts Sent by Fed Officer Who Shot Marimar Martinez
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CBS News Chicago. Marimar Martinez Pleads Not Guilty to Assault of Border Patrol Agents
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ABC 7 Chicago. Department of Justice Drops Charges Against Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz
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Chicago Tribune. Border Patrol Bodycam Video Marimar Martinez
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Illinois Accountability Commission. IAC Public Hearing
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WTTW News. New Evidence Contradicts Border Patrol Agent’s Claims in Shooting
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ABC News. 5 Shots 7 Holes Border Patrol Supervisor Appeared
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Capitol News Illinois. Marimar Martinez Moves to Sue