CHICAGO – Two people are facing charges in connection with the use of cars to ram and block federal agents on Chicago’s Southwest Side on Saturday, which led to a shooting.
Federal prosecutors charged Marimar Martinez, 30, and Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz, 21, with forcibly assaulting, impeding, and interfering with a federal law enforcement officer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois.
What we know:
Prosecutors said federal agents had conducted an operation on Saturday and Border Patrol agents acting as security detail were followed by a “convoy” of cars.
Prosecutors allege that civilian cars began to follow the agents near Oak Lawn and were driving “aggressively and erratically,” sometimes coming very close to the agents’ car, disregarding red lights and stop signs, and driving the wrong way on one-way streets.
Around 10:30 a.m., Martinez and Ruiz allegedly used their cars to hit a vehicle being driven by a Customs and Border Protection agent near the intersection of West 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue. The car driven by Martinez side-swiped the driver’s side of the CBP car, prosecutors said.
Martinez loudly referred to Border Patrol agents as “la migra,” according to court documents, which is common Spanish slang for immigration enforcement officials.
After hitting the agent’s car, the suspects then allegedly boxed in the vehicle, which held a total of three agents at the time.
Prosecutors included multiple images of the damage they say was caused by the suspects’ vehicles.
The agents were unable to move their car and got out. One agent fired five shots at Martinez, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the accounts of events by federal agents was corroborated by body-worn camera footage.
Martinez then allegedly drove off, but paramedics found her and her car at a repair shop about a mile away near 35th Street and California Avenue. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital where she received treatment for her gunshot wounds.
Ruiz also allegedly off, but officers later found him at a gas station about half a block away.
They were both in law enforcement custody pending an initial court appearance in Chicago.