A Chicago street near Kedzie Avenue and 39th Street in Brighton Park, with a parked SUV and police tape at the scene

Gone but Not Forgotten

Marimar Martinez has sued over the Brighton Park Border Patrol shooting

Marimar Martinez sued the U.S. over the 2025 Brighton Park Border Patrol shooting. Here's what the suit claims and what's still unresolved.

By HellginOctober 14, 20267 min read

If you were in Chicago last October, you probably remember the helicopters, the whistles and the news alerts during Operation Midway Blitz. One of the biggest stories came out of Brighton Park, where a Border Patrol agent shot a woman from the South Side five times. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, that woman, Marimar Martinez, sued the United States. She says the government's agent hurt her and then had her prosecuted for something she didn't do. Here's what the suit claims and what's still open.

The lawsuit in short

Martinez filed her federal lawsuit on Monday, Oct. 5, a year and a day after the shooting. The defendant is the U.S. government. The agent who fired is not named as a defendant. The suit is brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the law that lets people sue the federal government for harm done by its employees.

The complaint lists seven claims: negligence, battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, false arrest and false imprisonment. Put simply, she says the shooting was wrongful, and so were the arrest and the criminal case that followed.

Martinez is a U.S. citizen, born and raised in Chicago, according to the Sun-Times. Her lawyers don't expect a quick settlement. "This is a trial," attorney Michael Gallagher told the Sun-Times.

Keep in mind that these are allegations in a lawsuit. A court hasn't ruled on any of them, and the government hasn't filed its answer yet.

What happened on October 4, 2025

The shooting happened near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue in the Brighton Park area. Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot Martinez five times, and the Sun-Times reports she ended up with seven wounds.

According to the Sun-Times, Martinez was driving a Nissan Rogue. She had been following a Chevrolet Tahoe carrying Exum and two other agents, honking and yelling "la migra" to warn people that immigration agents were nearby. That kind of warning was common in Chicago neighborhoods that fall.

The two sides tell very different stories about what came next. The Department of Homeland Security first said Martinez tried to ram the agents with her car. Martinez says Exum swerved into her and the two vehicles sideswiped each other.

There is also the question of a gun. According to the Sun-Times account of her side of the story, Martinez had a firearm in a snapped-shut holster at the bottom of her purse. Her lawyers say she never pulled it out.

Video has become central to the dispute. WGLT reported that Exum's own body camera wasn't on during the shooting, which looks like a violation of policy. A camera worn by another agent in the back seat recorded the moments before and after. WGLT says that footage shows Exum veering sharply left toward Martinez's vehicle, and the Sun-Times says it appears to show him turning the steering wheel toward her.

The criminal case that fell apart

Martinez didn't start out as the plaintiff. She started out as the defendant. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, led by Andrew Boutros, charged her with assaulting federal officers. A second person, co-defendant Anthony Ruiz, was charged in the same case.

The case didn't last. Prosecutors asked to dismiss it in November 2025, and the judge dismissed the charges on Nov. 20, 2025, according to Wikipedia's account citing the Chicago Tribune and WTTW's coverage that day. The dismissal was with prejudice, which means the charges can't be filed again. Ruiz's charges were dismissed with prejudice too. Outlets describe the timing a little differently: Fox 32 says the charges were dropped about six weeks after she was indicted, and the Sun-Times says it was nearly two months after she was charged.

Before the case ended, there was a fight over the car itself. Wikipedia, citing the Tribune, says the vehicle was driven about 1,100 miles to Maine before the defense could inspect it, and that a mechanic later buffed it.

The criminal case is over. But the arrest and prosecution are now part of what Martinez is suing over.

What the lawyers say the evidence shows

Most of the evidence came out after the criminal case ended. On Feb. 6, 2026, a judge ordered the body-camera footage and other evidence released. Federal prosecutors made public the footage, text messages and photos.

Martinez's lawyers hired Jeremy Bauer of Bauer Forensics LLC to reconstruct the shooting. The Sun-Times reports his findings: Exum fired the first three shots from the passenger side, the fourth through the front passenger window and the fifth through the rear passenger window. Her lawyers say that pattern doesn't fit an agent shooting at a car coming at him. Attorney Chris Parente told Fox 32 that Exum was "behind it and shot her through the back."

That reconstruction comes from Martinez's side. It's an expert hired by her lawyers, and the government will get a chance to challenge it.

The lawsuit was months in the making. Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, you have to file an administrative claim with the government first and give it six months to respond before you can sue. Martinez's lawyers announced that claim at a news conference on Feb. 11, 2026, WGLT reported. They said then that she would seek "tens of millions of dollars" in damages. The Sun-Times story on the new lawsuit doesn't give a dollar amount.

Where criminal charges stand

Martinez's lawyers have said that what they want most is a criminal case against the agent, not just money.

Martinez reportedly filed a Chicago Police report in August 2026, and a detective has been assigned. The Sun-Times says the investigation sits with an elite unit of CPD detectives, who would be expected to take any case to Cook County prosecutors. Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke's office says a case has to be built before it can decide anything. As of last month, the Sun-Times reported, no agency had brought one against a federal agent.

Parente, a former federal prosecutor, told the Sun-Times he has "conclusive proof" to charge Exum under Illinois law. That's his view, and no prosecutor has acted on it.

Others have weighed in. In April 2026, the Illinois Accountability Commission issued a report concluding that Exum shot an unarmed civilian without apparent justification, according to the Sun-Times.

DHS says Exum is on administrative leave. No federal agent has been charged with an on-duty crime tied to Midway Blitz, and the Justice Department declined to comment to the Sun-Times.

What to watch next

Next up is the government's formal response to the lawsuit, which hasn't been filed yet. Her lawyers say the case is headed for trial, not a settlement, so this could take a long time. Federal civil cases often take more than a year, which means this one probably won't be settled by Thanksgiving or by the second anniversary. The other thing to watch is whether CPD's detectives take a case to the Cook County State's Attorney.

For the full reporting, start with the Sun-Times and Fox 32 stories below.

Sources (6)

Photo by Michelle-Maria on Pixabay.