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The attorney for a woman who was shot by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood last year is seeking to force the release of body camera footage of the incident, two months after federal prosecutors dropped criminal charges against her.
Citing the recent “executions” of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minnesota, Marimar Martinez‘s lawyer argues the evidence in her case should be made public to shed light on how the Department of Homeland Security “responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens.”
Martinez’s attorney, Christopher Parente, argued in an eight-page motion on Monday that the Trump administration has continued to describe her as a “domestic terrorist” who rammed federal agents with her car, even after prosecutors dropped the criminal case against her.
In November, U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis dismissed an indictment against Martinez and her co-defendant, Anthoni Ian Santos Ruiz, after federal prosecutors sought to drop the case. The charges were dismissed with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile them in the future.
On Monday, Parente filed a motion seeking to release “body camera footage, photographs, electronic communications, and other evidentiary materials” from the case.
In his filing, Parente said Martinez had hoped that having the charges against her dropped “would allow her to ‘go back to her normal life.’”
“Regretfully, that did not end up being the case. What happened to Ms. Martinez and the truth about the events of October 4, 2025, as well as what is happening with the killing of two other individuals by DHS agents have become matters of strong public interest and debate,” he wrote.
The filing states Martinez was “compelled” to request the release of the evidence from her case “in order to defend herself from a regrettable and unyielding tide of misinformation from the federal government regarding her case.”
Despite voluntarily dropping the charges against Martinez, Parente argued “government officials continue to prosecute Ms. Martinez’s character in the court of public opinion.”
“The ability to disclose the evidence in this case is paramount to Ms. Martinez’s ability to combat the continuing harm being done to her reputation,” he wrote.
Parente noted that a Department of Homeland Security press release and various government social media posts that described Martinez as a “domestic terrorist” who rammed federal agents with her vehicle are still online, even after the charges against her were dropped.
He also pointed to a 60 Minutes report on Martinez’s case, in which he provided surveillance video that he said contradicts DHS’s claim that Martinez had “boxed in” federal agents with her car on Oct. 4, 2025, before an agent shot her multiple times.
Video that Parente obtained from a business near the scene of the shooting shows the agent’s vehicle coming to a stop with no vehicles in front of it or on the left side of the vehicle.
“There was nobody in front of this agent. If he simply wanted to move forward on the street in the direction he was going, he could’ve continued on,” Parente told 60 Minutes.
The video then shows Martinez passing on the vehicle’s left side moments after Border Patrol agent Charles Exum opened fire.
“It shows there’s nobody to the left of [the agent’s] vehicle…she’s in the far-left lane, she goes towards the curb, away from the agent, ” he told 60 Minutes.
In a statement to 60 Minutes, DHS Assistant Secretary McLaughlin said, “On October 4, border patrol law enforcement officers were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles.” She also said Martinez was “armed with a semi-automatic weapon and has a history of doxing federal law enforcement.”
Parente has said Martinez is a U.S. citizen with a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification Card and a concealed carry license, and her gun was in her purse the entire time.
In seeking to release the body camera footage from the incident in which Martinez was shot, Parente argued “the ability to disseminate the factual evidence about the events of October 4 and DHS’s response to Ms. Martinez’s shooting is of the utmost importance to Ms. Martinez, and frankly to the entire country at this tragic time in our nation’s history.”
“Ms. Martinez has no convictions nor pending criminal charges but is still publicly degraded as a ‘domestic terrorist’ by her own Government,” he wrote.
Parente also argued that releasing the body camera footage from the shooting of Martinez would help shed light on the recent shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
“Based on recent events in Minneapolis, Minnesota, involving the execution of two U.S. citizens who were engaged in similar peaceful protests as Ms. Martinez at the time of their killings, Ms. Martinez believes certain information disclosed in her case […] would be useful for both the public and elected officials to know regarding how DHS responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens,” he wrote.
Parente plans to present his motion to U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis – the judge who dismissed the case against Martinez – at a hearing on Thursday morning at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago, which handled the prosecution of Martinez’s case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Parente’s motion.
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Todd Feurer
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