Did ice agents brag via text message about shooting Miriam five times making seven holes
Executive summary
Records shown in public hearings and reported by multiple outlets indicate a Border Patrol agent involved in the October 4, 2025, Brighton Park shooting of Marimar Martinez sent group messages boasting “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes,” and similar boastful texts were read aloud by lawmakers and shown in court filings [1] [2]. Those texts were presented as evidence in hearings and cited by prosecutors and advocates as disturbing, while the agent later characterized his remarks as pride in marksmanship and federal authorities have framed the shooting as self‑defense [1] [2] [3].
1. What the reporting actually documents: texts were presented at hearings
Multiple mainstream outlets trace these specific messages to records introduced at a hearing about the Chicago case: Reuters reported that records showed the agent, Charles Exum, wrote in a group Signal chat, “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys,” and sent others a news link with “Read it. 5 shots, 7 holes” [1]; RNZ and other outlets published similar verbatim quotations from the records [2]. Congressional and courtroom presentations — not anonymous social posts — are the provenance most stories cite for the texts [1] [2].
2. Who said what and how they defended it
When asked about the messages in court, Exum reportedly told an attorney he was a firearms instructor and “take[s] pride in [his] shooting skills,” framing the messages as professional boasting rather than malicious taunting [2] [1]. Federal officials have contended the agent fired in self‑defense after an alleged vehicle strike; by contrast, eyewitness video and defense advocates have disputed the government’s account of events leading to the shooting [1] [3] [4].
3. The wider context reporters flagged: how media and lawmakers used the texts
Democrats and activists read the messages aloud in congressional forums and hearings to illustrate what they called a pattern of excessive force and troubling culture inside federal immigration enforcement, and several outlets described the texts as “disgusting” or “vile” when they were introduced into the record [5] [6] [4]. Prosecutors moved to dismiss certain charges against Martinez after those messages were publicly shown, a development noted in news coverage as influencing prosecutorial decisions [4] [7].
4. Limits of available reporting and unanswered forensic questions
News reports consistently attribute the messages to records presented at hearings, but publicly available coverage does not include raw Signal logs accessible here, and federal prosecutors opposed broad release of other post‑shooting messages on grounds they were irrelevant to the dismissed charges [3]. Independent verification beyond multiple reputable outlets publishing the same quoted lines is not present in the provided reporting; therefore, while the quoted phrasing is documented in hearings and press coverage, the full context of the chat group, any metadata, and exhaustive authentication detail are not included in these sources [1] [2] [3].
5. Alternative interpretations and implicit stakes
Supporters of the agent treat the texts as offhand, gloating self‑praise tied to a firearms‑training identity, a characterization the agent reportedly offered [2]. Critics argue the messages reveal a celebratory attitude toward shooting an unarmed person and underscore systemic problems with accountability in federal immigration enforcement [5] [4]. The reporting also illustrates a political dynamic: lawmakers used the texts to press for oversight, while federal officials emphasized operational danger and self‑defense, exposing divergent institutional narratives and political incentives shaping how the messages were deployed publicly [5] [1].