CHICAGO (WGN) — A man and a woman were charged in federal court Sunday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents alleged their vehicle was struck and blocked by a pair of vehicles on Saturday.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Chicago, 30-year-old Marimar Martinez and 21-year-old Anthony Ian Santos Ruiz were both charged with using their vehicles to assault, impede and interfere with the work of federal agents in Chicago near the intersection of West 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue.
The complaint says the three CBP agents involved in the incident were tasked with operating as a mobile security detail in Oak Lawn for other CBP agents in other CBP vehicles on Saturday.
At some point Saturday morning, the CBP agents said multiple civilian vehicles began to aggressively follow their vehicle and others driven by fellow CBP agents. The complaint alleges the civilian vehicles’ pursuit included running red lights and stop signs, driving in the wrong lane, and driving the wrong way down one-way streets in order to pursue them.
According to the CBP agents, it was at this point that the driver of their vehicle drove away in an effort to draw the pursuing civilians away from other CBP vehicles, which led them to drive northbound on Kedzie Avenue into Chicago.
The complaint goes on to allege that Martinez and Ruiz used their vehicles to box in and strike a vehicle driven by a CBP agent with two other CBP agents inside of it on Saturday morning.
After striking the agents’ vehicle, Martinez and Ruiz’s vehicles remained southbound of the agents’ vehicle. The driver of the CBP agents’ vehicle then brought their vehicle to a stop, and the CBP agents exited the vehicle, the complaint states.
It was at this point, the CBP agent who was behind the wheel and one of the other two CBP agents said Martinez’s vehicle drove northbound toward the CBP agent who was driving. The CBP agent who was driving then fired approximately five shots from his service weapon at Martinez, according to the complaint.
The complaint then alleges that both Martinez and Ruiz drove away after the incident and were later found within a mile of where the crash originally happened.
Martinez was found at a repair shop about one mile away, where she was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and received medical treatment after being shot, the complaint said.
Ruiz’s vehicle backed into a parked car, did a U-turn, and parked about half a block south of the collision at a gas station, where Ruiz stayed until he was arrested by CBP agents, according to the complaint.
Outside of descriptions and photos listed of Martinez and Ruiz’s vehicle, the complaint states that CBP agents described two other vehicles—a dark pickup truck and another unknown vehicle—as being a part of the incident leading up to the point their vehicle was allegedly struck by Martinez and Ruiz.
Based on a press release from the Department of Justice and the criminal complaint filed in federal court, it is unclear if those two vehicles were also involved in the collision and/or fled the scene. The full criminal complaint can be read at the bottom of this article.
Martinez and Ruiz remain in police custody, pending initial appearances in federal court in Chicago.
On Saturday, Officials with the Department of Homeland Security said border patrol agents were conducting a routine patrol in the area of West 39th Street and South Kedzie Avenue when they were allegedly “attacked and rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.”
Agents then got out of the alleged trapped vehicle, and officials said that was when a female suspect—who is a US citizen—allegedly tried to run them over, forcing the agents to open fire.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the woman who allegedly tried to run the CBP agents over was also allegedly armed with a “semi-automatic weapon.”
Officials said after the woman was shot, she drove herself to the hospital.
Sources later told WGN-TV that the woman was admitted in critical condition after she drove herself to a local hospital. No CBP agents were wounded during the incident.
“One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon. Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fired defensive shots at an armed US citizen who drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds,” McLaughlin said. “Comparing ICE day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences.
“The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop. We are praying for our law enforcement and their families. This is an evolving situation, and we will give the public more information as soon as it becomes available.”
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