Key Witness Who Disputed ICE Account of Fatal Texas Shooting Dies in Car Accident

Feb. 23, 2026Updated 11:14 a.m. ET

The only passenger in the car when an American citizen was shot and killed by a federal officer in South Texas last year had planned to speak up and contradict the government’s account of the shooting. However, the passenger, Joshua Orta, died in an unrelated car crash over the weekend.

Mr. Orta, 25, was in the passenger seat on March 15, 2025, when his childhood friend, Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was shot multiple times in South Padre Island by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after the authorities said he failed to comply with commands to exit his vehicle.

In a written statement obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Orta said that the two men had offered no resistance to law enforcement officers and were trying to comply with commands to turn around the car when the situation got out of control and Mr. Martinez was shot.

Mr. Orta had provided his version of events in the statement, which was taken in September by lawyers representing Mr. Martinez’s family to be used for future legal proceedings. He was planning to sign the statement and cooperate with investigators hired by the family before he died Saturday in a car crash on a San Antonio highway.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/us/ice-shooting-texas-witness-dead.html