New court documents show a Maine Border Patrol agent who shot a woman accused of crashing into his vehicle in Chicago sent profane text messages to his colleagues bragging about the shooting.
The text messages from the agent identified by several media outlets as Charles Exum came to light in federal court this week.
“Cool. I’m up for another round of ‘f_ _ _ around and find out,'” the agent wrote in a text dated one day after the shooting. Another text reads, “I fired 5 rounds and she has 7 holes. Put that in your book boys”
Exum drove the vehicle back to Maine, where repairs were made before it was returned to Chicago for inspection by the woman’s defense attorneys.
The defense claims those actions show evidence was mishandled in the case.
The defense also says the collision between the Border Patrol vehicle and the woman’s SUV was a car crash, not a “ramming,” as described in news releases by the Department of Homeland Security.
Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz are accused of assaulting federal officers during an October 4 incident in Chicago, where the two reportedly drove their vehicles into an SUV occupied by three U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents.
During the hearing this week, the defense claimed video showed the Border Patrol vehicle turn “the wheel to the left, which would be consistent with him running into Mrs. Martinez’s vehicle.”
