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A year ago this week, Ruben Ray Martinez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, was shot and killed
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by an ICE agent in Texas.
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But it was not until this past February, 11 months after the shooting that ICE confirmed
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It's now become the first publicly-known instance of ICE fatally shooting a U.S. citizen as part
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of President Trump's immigration crackdown.
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While the Department of Homeland Security says Martinez intentionally ramped his vehicle
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into an agent, recently released body cam footage, which shows shots being fired into
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Martinez' vehicle, calls that narrative into question.
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And one year later, Martinez' family is still searching for answers.
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We're joined now by Ruben Martinez' mother, Rachel Reyes, and her attorney, Charles
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Thank you both for being with us.
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Rachel, we'll start with you.
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It's been a year since you lost your son.
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And when you think of him now, what most stands out?
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He was so funny and humble, and the light of our house, he was always very laid back and
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just a really good kid.
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He was trying to figure things out.
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Yeah, he was, I can't even any.
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Well, take us back to that day.
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How did you first learn that your son had been killed in the early hours?
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What were you told had happened?
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So an official came to my home and told me that my son had passed away, and the way
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he described the incident was that he got, there was an accident ahead of them, it's still
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down the traffic, and then the Ruben was going so slow that an officer saw a container
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in the vehicle, but he told him he was in the limbo anyway, so he let him go forward.
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And then the other officer yelled for him to not go, well, he told me that what happened
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was he got tapped, he might, his son was going forward and tapped an officer, and that
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that's why they shot him, just for that reason, and I just couldn't understand this and
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the day one never made any sense to me.
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Well, tell me more about that.
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What point did you start to feel like you weren't getting the full story?
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That same day, it just didn't make any sense to me because he wouldn't, I don't understand
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why they had to do that because I know my son wouldn't use his vehicle as a weapon and
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it just didn't make any sense at all, and I knew something was not right, it just never
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made any sense since day one.
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Charles, I want to bring you in and ask you to respond to this statement we received
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They say, quote, we stand by the grand jury's unanimous decision that found no criminality.
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The incident was investigated from every possible angle by an independent body and it cleared
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You've now reviewed the body camera footage released by the Texas Department of Public
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What does that video show and to what extent does it call into question the government's
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I think it calls it completely into question, you know, nothing we saw on any of the
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video suggested that Ruben posed a threat to members of the public, to law enforcement,
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If you look at the video right before the fatal shots were fired, Ruben yielded at
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a crosswalk to allow several young ladies to pass.
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I mean, it's no laughing matter, bluntly, people who are using their vehicles as weapons,
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people who are looking to commit acts of terror, they don't yield to people to cross the
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And although there are gaps in the video, although there are periods of the video that
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are difficult to make out, there is nothing that we've seen on the video that remotely
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justifies the use of force against Ruben.
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Well, what do you believe happened in those final moments based on your own investigation?
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Well, we believe that Ruben entered a confusing scene.
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It was a scene that a lot of other drivers had difficulty navigating.
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You know, it wasn't clear to me in viewing the body camera, whether the cops were indicating
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that there was a lane closed or an entire roadway that was closed.
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So a lot of people besides Ruben got confused and may have tried to enter too far.
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So we start with a problematic scene and omissions in terms of traffic safety.
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And that's really what this is.
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This is South Padre spring break.
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There's nothing political about this.
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There's nothing to do with immigration operations.
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It's really what happens when you bring highly militarized federal police and federal officials
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into do every day basic police work.
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And Rachel, the mention of spring break, your son was there celebrating his birthdays,
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Charles, it took nearly a year for ICE to publicly acknowledge its role in all of this.
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What do you think accounts for that delay?
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You know, I would hate to speculate without any basis in reality.
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But what I can tell you is that it's concerning to us.
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These demands complete accountability, complete transparency.
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Sunshine must be allowed to enter the process.
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You know, you mentioned earlier that a grand jury investigation, no, no, no, a grand jury
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process is first of all confidential.
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So, you know, we shouldn't even be talking about those deliberations.
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But the fact that this was even given to a grand jury, that's about assessing criminal
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charges against some of these officers.
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That's not what, you know, that's not what's called for in a civil investigation, which
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involves law enforcement or the US attorney's office or the DOJ or whoever to actually conduct
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a thorough investigation to determine the root cause of this incident in a manner that
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And Charles, there was a key witness, Joshua Orta, who was in the car.
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He disputed the government's account.
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Mr. Orta later died in a car crash.
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What did he say happened that night?
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Mr. Orta gave my law firm a statement that largely corroborates what we saw in the
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Mr. Orta was also subject to interrogation by law enforcement and the wake of this incident
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before his tragic death.
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And what I can tell you is that Mr. Orta was adamant.
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Rubin may have been confused or frightened.
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He would never, ever, ever try to strike or hit or let a little run over a law enforcement
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So I think that Josh's statements across all of them emphasized that Rubin did not pose
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Rachel, what is your family asking for now that you still have not received?
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Before we were searching for answers, and now that we've seen the video, now we want
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justice and accountability, because based on the video, Rubin was not a threat that night.
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He was the only one trying to de-escalate.
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He had his foot on the brake and Jack Stevens, compulsively and aggressively took his life
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So my son died based off of, I think everyone involved in that scene is somehow responsible
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because of the commotion that chaos and the conflicting commands.
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And I think everyone played a part in this chaos that should have been a routine traffic
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encounter that turned into a tragic event for nothing.
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So he took my son's life for nothing.
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So I wouldn't want justice for that.
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Accountability, justice, what does that look like?
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My son's death certificate says homicide, so whatever would be appropriate for that would
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have been just, but since the grand jury failed us, now we're going to have to look at other
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options, whatever that may be.
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I just, it's definitely something news to change.
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They can't keep doing this if people, he took my son's life and then DHS protects him
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with their misrepresentation of my son.
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And that's another harm caused by them.
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And it's just awful, this whole situation is wrong, it should have never happened.
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May I ask how you're holding up in this moment?
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I'm incredibly overwhelming, it's hard, it's been really hard just the dealing with everything
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and then it seems like it keeps adding on and combining like the more harm they call it,
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it's just, it's been rough for all of us.
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Yeah, well I certainly wish you peace and my condolences on the loss of your son.
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Rachel Reyes, Charles Stammer, thanks to you both.