‘He couldn’t breathe’: Family flags medical care of man shot by ICE in Maryland

Tiago Sousa-Martins’ family was preparing for Christmas Eve when the 30-year-old Maryland resident left home and headed to work. Within hours, he was stopped by immigration agents in an encounter that left him with multiple gunshot wounds, criminal charges and questions about his future in the United States.

Now, his family and legal team are speaking to the News4 I-Team about concerns they have about his ongoing medical care in federal custody as he fights misdemeanor charges stemming from his arrest.

“This is another tragic example of ICE’s excessive use of force that we’re seeing escalating at an alarming rate across the country,” said Alice Barrett, managing attorney for immigration legal services with the advocacy nonprofit CASA.

She said Sousa-Martins hasn’t received recommended follow-up appointments with trauma surgeons and has struggled to receive necessary medication and care while behind bars – first in ICE custody and now in federal pre-trial detention in Maryland.

“He was left for days in a state in which he was not receiving proper medication or bandage changes, and it has taken a lot of advocacy to just get him to a point where his bandages are being regularly changed,” she said.

Sousa-Martins’ partner, who asked News4 and Telemundo 44 to not to identify her by name, wept as she described the impact the shooting has had on their family – especially their two young children.

“My oldest son, to this day, keeps asking: “Where is my father?” she said in Spanish, adding the family has told the children their father is on an extended trip.

She said she didn’t hear from Sousa-Martins for about a week after he was shot during his arrest in Glen Burnie, and when she did, she was alarmed at how he sounded.

“He couldn’t breathe. The bullet caused something in his body that is preventing him from breathing well,” she said.

2 accounts of the day ICE officers shot Tiago Sousa-Martins

Court records show ICE officers weren’t looking for Sousa-Martins when they were on patrol near a Lowe’s home improvement store in Glen Burnie on December 24.

After spotting his work van, court records show officers ran his license plate and compared the information against Department of Homeland Security immigration databases, where they say records showed he had overstayed a 2008 visa.

According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, Sousa-Martins told authorities he arrived from Portugal as a child to visit his father, who he said told him that he was “not going back” to Portugal. Sousa-Martins also told the FBI agent he had purchased a home and was in the process of trying to become a U.S. citizen.

The FBI agent’s affidavit, based on interviews with ICE officers and Sousa-Martins, reveals differing accounts of what happened during his arrest.

According to the affidavit, Sousa-Martins said ICE officers surrounded his van, “seemed angry and “at a 10 in intensity,” yelling at him in Spanish. He said he told them he speaks English.

ICE officers claim he refused to exit his vehicle, so they broke a window to try to pull him out.

Sousa-Martins said he believed the officers were going to shoot him, so he began to drive his van between two residential buildings. ICE officers, however, said he struck their cars with his van and, fearing for their lives, they opened fire.

In the end, Tiago was shot in the left thigh and upper back before his van smashed into a tree. He now faces federal misdemeanor charges for resisting arrest and destruction of government property.

Another man, an immigrant from El Salvador, was in custody inside one of the ICE officers’ vehicles that was allegedly struck, according to DHS.

Anne Arundel County police are also investigating the shooting, but no charges have been filed. Both of the federal charges against Sousa-Martins carry up to a year sentence.

“We can tell you that Tiago is committed to defending himself and seeking justice for what he and his family have endured,” Barrett, his attorney, said.

But their first priority, she said, is ensuring he receive “all forms of medical care that can help speed up his healing and recovery” behind bars.

‘Can you imagine the pain and anguish of not knowing whether he’ll be able to carry his 1-year-old?’

Following his arrest, Sousa-Martins was treated for multiple gunshot wounds at Shock Trauma in Baltimore and, according to Barrett, doctors advised to bring him back within two weeks for a follow-up.

He was then transferred to an ICE detention facility in Virginia, and she said ICE didn’t take Sousa-Martins for the recommended follow-up.

In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: “Sousa-Martins had access to medical care as needed throughout his detention. He was transferred to the U.S. Marshals in good health January 17.”

He’s now awaiting trial at the Chesapeake Detention Facility (CDF) in Maryland, which is operating under an agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service. But Barrett said his medical care has not improved.

She said despite sustaining multiple gunshot wounds, “he’s being told that all he can take for this at this time is Tylenol along with – again, after repeated efforts of advocacy through his council, by him, and through elected officials – a muscle relaxant.”

Barrett said her team has struggled to get Tiago-Sousa a comprehensive X-ray analysis of the remaining bullet fragments in his body and that they’re requesting physical therapy.

“He recently felt immense pain when he was just being asked to carry a bag of a couple of reheatable soups for his commissary. I mean, can you imagine the pain and anguish of not knowing whether he’ll be able to carry his 1-year-old infant when he’s finally released?” she asked.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which operates CDF, said they cannot comment on the specific medical care of an incarcerated individual, but said the department “remains firmly committed to the health, safety, and well-being of every individual in our custody.”

The statement goes on to say that the facility’s medical partner “works diligently to ensure that incarcerated individuals receive timely medical attention and–when appropriate–the same treatment and support they received before their incarceration.”

Following the I-Team’s request for information, Sousa-Martins’ family and legal team said they received word he will be taken back to Shock Trauma for a follow-up appointment.

The lawsuit accuses ICE and DHS of failing to comply with a state investigation into claims of inhumane conditions inside the Baltimore facility. News4’s Mauricio Casillas reports.

Injuries and deaths in ICE custody

Sousa-Martin’s case comes as watchdog groups such as Democracy Forward sue the Trump Administration for gutting three oversight agencies that investigate complaints about civil rights and medical care.

“These are the types of things that both the federal government and its oversight agencies should be able to root out and address, but this administration has been avoiding that type of transparency and accountability in civil rights enforcement,” said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward.

DHS did not respond to the I-Team’s request for comment on that concern but in court filings, DHS said the offices “are not shut down and continue to perform their statutory functions.”

Barrett said she worries any breakdown in oversight only makes it harder for people in ICE custody to get help if they’ve been hurt.

More than a dozen people have been shot by federal immigration agents since September, according to NBC News. Federal data show at least 35 people have died while in ICE custody since January 2025.

Barrett said CASA now routinely fields complaints from immigrants who say they were injured by ICE too but are afraid to report their injuries.

“Victims are left to basically look to either prosecution or civil litigation as a means to seek accountability, and those are much steeper hills to climb,” she said.

For now, Sousa-Martins’ partner says she’s holding on to hope he regains his strength and one day can return to his family and children.

“What worries us most is that he won’t receive proper care and that he’ll suffer lasting consequences,” she told T44. “He’s very scared because he always tells me he can’t take his children because he doesn’t have the strength in his arms. He can’t hug them. It’s very painful for him.”

A year ago, News4 first reported on the mistaken deportation of a Maryland man. News4’s Paul Wagner reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia and the Trump administration remain at odds.