‘Critical’ Witness to Man Shot Dead by ICE Dies in Car Accident Before Being Able to ‘Testify’

A man who saw his friend reportedly shot dead at the hands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has died in an unrelated car accident.

According to a Monday, February 23, New York Times report, Joshua Orta, 25, died in the early morning hours of Saturday when he lost control of the car he was driving in Texas and hit a utility pole. His stepfather, John Arriaga, confirmed his death to the Times.

Last year, Orta was the only passenger in the car when his friend Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was allegedly shot multiple times in South Padre Island, Texas, on March 15, 2025, by an ICE officer after authorities said he failed to comply with their commands.

“The world has also now lost a critical eyewitness,” said Alex Stamm, a lawyer for Martinez’s mother Rachel Reyes. “We believe Joshua’s account, and, as we have seen recently in Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere, it is critical that the public be shown every piece of evidence in the government’s possession, and that any witness come forward.”

Arriaga told the Times Orta planned to talk to lawyers and investigators, adding, “He told me that he was involved and that he was going to testify. He said, ‘I need to do whatever I have to do because of my friend.’”

Orta previously said in a written statement — which he was planning to sign in an effort to cooperate with investigators hired by Martinez’s family — that he and his friend did not resist officers before the shooting.

Orta said in his statement that he and Martinez came upon the scene of a car crash, and Martinez seemed concerned because they had an open container of alcohol on them. An officer  at the scene allegedly told them to turn around, but there was apparently no room to do so because of traffic.

“As we inched forward in traffic to get turned around, another officer, a state trooper, walked up to our car” and “slapped the hood,” he wrote in the statement. Orta said an officer at the scene “seemed to be trying to get in front of the car,” and the scene got out of control. However, Orta claimed that he did not see Martinez run over an agent.

Orta claimed a federal agent fired “multiple shots” into the car “without giving any warning, commands or opportunity to comply.”

The Department of Homeland Security had a different story, according to the Times. They claimed the officer was acting in self-defense and that the driver “ran over” a Homeland Security special agent.

According to internal agency documents reviewed by the Times, Martinez initially did not follow instructions. He eventually stopped, and agents surrounded his vehicle and told him to get out of the car. Martinez allegedly accelerated and hit a federal agent, prompting a different agent to fire multiple times into the car.

The shooting is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, a state agency that reviews shootings involving law enforcement, per the Times.

The agent who was allegedly hit by Martinez’s car reportedly went to the hospital and was treated for a knee injury.

The Times said that no video footage of Martinez’s killing has become available.