CBP officers caught boasting about shooting a woman in disturbing text exchange: "S**t happens"
Washington DC - Disturbing text messages released during a congressional hearing on Tuesday reveal that Customs and Border Protection agents had joked about firing "five rounds" into a woman's body.
"I fired five rounds, and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys," read text messages revealed by Democrat Robert Garcia during the congressional hearing. "Oh well, it is what it is... s**t happens."
The messages were reportedly sent by the CBP agent who on October 4 shot Marimar Martinez, sending her to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
In the aftermath of the shooting, which took place amid the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago, the CBP agents involved claimed Martinez had chased them and rammed them with her car, attempting to justify her shooting as self-defense.
US District Judge Georgia Alexakis in November dismissed charges against Martinez after concerns arose about how the Department of Homeland Security had handled the investigation.
One such concern was that the DHS had moved the CBP agent who shot Martinez more than 1,000 miles away from the Chicago crime scene.
CBP officers slammed for "disgusting and shameful" texts
Garcia said the newly reveal text messages were "disgusting and shameful" and pointed out that "this is someone that works for the United States government."
"It's our understanding that he was actually bragging about his aim in shooting an unarmed American citizen," Garcia said.
The revelation came during the same hearing which saw Renee Good's brothers testify before Congress to express their anger and grief over her killing in Minneapolis last month.
"In the last few weeks, our family took some consolation, thinking that perhaps Nee's death would bring about change in our country, and it has not," said Luke Ganger, one of Good's siblings.
Cover photo: Collage: AFP/Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images & AFP/Roberto Schmidt
