Sole Witness to Texas ICE Killing of an American Citizen Also Died this Weekend

In a tragic headline that sounds like it was ripped straight from the plot of an espionage thriller, the only witness to the recently revealed killing of an American citizen by ICE in Texas also reportedly died over the course of the weekend, in a fiery car wreck.

Only a few days ago, we wrote about the killing of 23-year-old American citizen Ruben Ray Martinez, whose March 2025 death had slipped under the radar, filed among America’s countless police violence deaths (as if this somehow makes it better) rather than a death that was perpetrated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The latter detail only emerged nearly a year after the fact thanks to Freedom of Information Act requests, which turned up internal ICE documents about the incident, in which Martinez was shot to death at the wheel of his car on the small Texas barrier island of South Padre Island, a mode of killing that can’t help but remind one of the death of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota. As in the case of Good, ICE agents claimed in their report that Martinez attempted to weaponize his car, striking an agent who “wound up on the hood of the vehicle,” but was only reportedly treated for minor injuries. Unlike Good’s case, no video has yet emerged from the incident, leaving the objective truth unknown.

An ICE agent shot and killed 23-year-old U.S. citizen Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas almost an entire year ago and hid the shooting from the public.

It’s only now coming to light, 11 months later, due to Freedom of Information Act requests.

What else is the regime hiding from us?

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— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) Feb 23, 2026 at 1:30 PM

Muddying the waters even more, however, are statements that have now emerged that are attributable to Joshua Orta, Martinez’s friend and the passenger in the car when Martinez was shot. Orta told a very different story about what happened on South Padre Island, but has now passed away himself in truly improbable fashion, after reportedly losing control of his car on San Antonio highway late Saturday night and striking a utility pole. The car caught on fire, and the other three occupants, including a stepsister, were unable to save Orta. It’s a truly horrific story, and the family is owed our sympathy.

Let me be clear: It would be deeply irresponsible to imply without evidence that DHS had somehow targeted this man because he was a potential witness to more ICE malfeasance. But also: What the fuck is going on in Texas, where witnesses die in freak accidents a couple of days after the story breaks in the news? You can state that the deaths of Martinez and Orta are 100% unrelated, but good luck selling that narrative in the court of public opinion. People will believe what feels right, and in this case the suspicion will be inevitable.

A frustrating story on Orta’s death in The New York Times makes many claims of what Orta was reportedly “planning” to do in support of Martinez. We are told that he “planned to talk to lawyers and investigators about what he saw” 11 months earlier during his friend’s killing, without any suggestion of why this had not already happened. His stepfather says he was “going to testify” in some kind of legal action, presumably a wrongful death lawsuit from Martinez’s family that has yet to be filed. Orta was also “planning to sign the statement and cooperate with investigators hired by the family before he died Saturday in a car crash on a San Antonio highway,” implying that despite writing said statement in September, he had never signed it in the subsequent five months. What are we to make of this seeming reticence to fully commit? Is this merely the hesitation of a young man who is understandably traumatized by the death of a friend, or something more? And how will it affect the ability of Martinez’s family to bring their lawsuit?

Ruben Ray Martinez Passenger in ICE Shooting Dies in Car Crash

Joshua Orta, 25, a close friend who was with Martinez during the shooting and the only known eyewitness, had planned to formally sign a statement and assist with further inquiries into the incident before he was killed over the weekend

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— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) Feb 23, 2026 at 11:41 AM

As for the content of the statement authored by Joshua Orta in September, he details how he and Martinez had traveled to South Padre Island while celebrating his friend’s 23rd birthday. Encountering local police (who were joined by agents of ICE) at an accident scene, he said that officers instructed Martinez to turn the car around, but he was unable to do so because traffic was backed up behind him. Orta wrote that “as we inched forward in traffic to get turned around, another officer, a state trooper, walked up to our car and slapped the hood.” The scene then reportedly turned chaotic, as officers allegedly yelled at the pair to stop and drew their weapons. Orta goes on to claim that the ICE agent then fired “multiple shots” through the open driver’s side window into Martinez, “without giving any warning, commands or opportunity to comply. I heard Ruben say, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then he slumped backward.”

Orta concludes that the killing should never have happened: “Ruben was unarmed, nonviolent, not fleeing and not resisting at the time he was shot. His killing was unjustified and excessive.”

The killing of Ruben Ray Martinez is still under investigation by the Texas Rangers, the state agency tasked with reviewing shootings involving law enforcement, with no indication of whether they would be pursuing charges against anyone–you have to figure there is suddenly a lot more interest in this particular case than there was a week ago, when it was known only to small groups of affected Texans. The case is still largely defined by its opacity, as DHS told NYT that it had no additional information to provide, and was simply sticking to its original statement characterization of Martinez as someone who was trying to run down law enforcement–a narrative we have already seen collapse in court on several occasions.

What becomes particularly clear is that we desperately need more evidence and more information from the night of Martinez’s death. DHS has, to my knowledge, never made a statement on whether body camera footage exists for this incident. If such footage exists, has it been reviewed by the Texas Rangers? Can the family and their lawyers obtain it? Is there still a possibility of bystander footage emerging, or is that asking too much for an incident that occurred in the early hours of the morning?

It’s a sad state of affairs, when the only hope of learning objective truth, or seeking justice, is hoping beyond hope that someone will emerge with clear video of an incident involving the death of an American citizen at the hands of federal agents. For the sake of both Ruben Ray Martinez and Joshua Orta, we sincerely hope that the improbable does come to pass.