US EditionWitness who saw friend fatally shot by immigration agent in Texas last year dies in car accident
Joshua Orta, a key eyewitness who disputed the official account of Ruben Ray Martinez's fatal ICE shooting, died in a San Antonio car crash, complicating investigations and legal actions.
- A man named Orta, who witnessed his friend Martinez fatally shot by a federal immigration agent in Texas, died in a high-speed car accident after crashing into a utility pole.
- Orta reported that Martinez did not hit any officer; their car was moving slowly while trying to turn around when a federal agent fired into Martinez's driver's side window from about two feet away without warning or commands.
- Martinez was shot three times and handcuffed after being pulled from the car, with at least a 10-minute delay before medical aid was provided, according to Orta and Martinez's mother Reyes.
- Martinez's family plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit and has obtained videos challenging claims that Martinez tried to run over an agent.
71 Articles
71 Articles
ICE fatally shot a Texas man in March 2025. The lone witness just died.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) are facing accusations of covering up a fatal shooting after a government watchdog group discovered the incident in a batch of released records. The revelation predated a family’s announcement that a civilian witness to the shooting died in a recent car crash. American Oversight, a government watchdog organization, filed a public records request with I…
Texas lawmaker demands details on fatal ICE shooting on South Padre Island
A South Texas lawmaker is demanding information from the Texas Department of Public Safety regarding the 2025 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old San Antonio man by ICE agents on South Padre Island. Meanwhile the only witness in the car during the shooting was killed in a violent crash this weekend, according to several reports.
The passenger who was traveling in the car when Texan driver Rubén Ray Martínez was shot dead last year by a federal immigration agent gave a long statement to the lawyers of the murdered man’s family refuting the government’s version of the facts. That witness died on Saturday in a burning car accident in San Antonio, according to a lawyer from Martínez’s family. Joshua Orta was traveling with Martinez during the spring break last March when th…
Sole Witness to Ruben Ray Martinez's Fatal Shooting by an ICE Agent Dies in Unrelated Car Accident
Joshua Orta, the only known witness to the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez during a 2025 encounter with federal immigration agents in Texas, has reportedly died in what police describe as an unrelated car accident. Orta, 25, had been preparing to formalise a written statement challenging the government's account of the March 2025 shooting. According to The New York Times, he died over the weekend before he could sign and adopt t…
Death of key witness complicates accountability in March 2025 immigration agent shooting of US citizen from San Antonio
A fatal shooting involving a federal immigration agent and a San Antonio man on South Padre Island in March 2025 only recently became public. New York Times reporter Edgar Sandoval spoke with Texas Public Radio about how the death of the only civilian witness is complicating efforts to clarify what happened.
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