Marimar Martinez, shot by federal agent in Brighton Park, plans to file lawsuit

A Chicago woman who was shot by a United States Border Agent during last year's "Operation Midway Blitz" plans to file a federal lawsuit on Monday.

In October 2025, Customs and Border Protection agent Charles Exum shot Marimar Martinez five times in Brighton Park. He claimed she rammed his vehicle.

Federal prosecutors indicted Martinez, but dropped the charges after bodycam video contradicted Exum's story.

Her legal team says it's seeking accountability and monetary damages for what it calls an unlawful shooting.

A civil rights legal expert, David Shaprio from the MacArthur Justice Center, said the lawsuit is essentially trying to hold the federal government liable for a federal officer's conduct.

While there may be some legal hurdles, Martinez's team has a lot of evidence to present.

"In a case like this where you have powerful video evidence, you have text messages from immediately after the fact from the officer, which violates Shapiro's rule #1 for how to shoot people and get away with it, which is, hey genius, don't text about it right after," he said. "So I think an analogous case like this would succeed. Although there are a lot of regional variations among the federal courts in terms of their willingness to let actions like this proceed."  

Chicago police also recently announced that its investigative response team is looking into the shooting.