Newly released evidence shows texts sent by federal officer after he shot Marimar Martinez

A pile of evidence related to the shooting of a Chicago woman by an immigration agent in Brighton Park last fall was released Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including text messages sent by the agent in the aftermath.

Judge Georgia N. Alexakis ordered body camera footage, text messages, flock camera footage and other evidence from the shooting be released during a hearing last week.

After a weekend spent making redactions, that evidence was released Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Marimar Martinez, a Chicago woman who was shot in October by Customs and Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum, requested the evidence be released as it would allow her to “defend herself from a regrettable and unyielding tide of misinformation from the federal government regarding her case,” according to court documents.

A text from Exum reveals his perspective of events just an hour after the shooting: “Today, 1 hour ago. ‘Parently, time slowed waaaaay down from when I got out of the vehicle until I started shooting. I thought it was 10-15 seconds and it was less than 2,” the text says in part.

Also included in the evidence released Tuesday is an email sent around 3 p.m. on October 4 from former Chief Patrol Agent for Customs and Border Protection Greg Bovino offering Exum an extension on his retirement beyond age 57 “in light of [his] excellent service in Chicago.” Exum shot Martinez around 10:30 a.m. earlier that day.

In a text sent the day after the shooting, Exum says he’s “up for another round of ‘f—k around and find out.” The person he is texting responds, though the message is redacted. Exum then sends another text: ‘lmfao.’

Prosecutors argued against the release of Exum’s text messages during the hearing last week, saying they will only “further sully” the agent and his family.

Judge Alexakis said her ruling to release the texts was based on them having redactions of the names of all third parties.

Some of the text messages were shown during the hearing, including one where Exum appears to brag about the shooting.

“Five shots, seven holes. I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book boys,” Exum said in a text message.