SAN ANTONIO — The only pᴀssenger present when 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez was fatally sH๏τ by a federal immigration agent in South Padre Island last year has died in an unrelated car crash, a development that could complicate ongoing efforts to examine the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Joshua Orta, 25, died early Saturday in a single-vehicle crash on a San Antonio highway, according to family members and preliminary police information.

Orta had been in the pᴀssenger seat on March 15, 2025, when Martinez was sH๏τ multiple times by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent during a late-night encounter with law enforcement.

Martinez, a San Antonio resident, was transported to a hospital in Brownsville, Texas, where he was pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

At the time, authorities described the incident as an officer-involved shooting. Federal involvement was not immediately disclosed publicly.

In recent months, internal agency documents and public reporting identified the shooting as involving an HSI supervisory special agent.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Martinez allegedly struck a federal agent with his vehicle after failing to comply with commands to exit the car.

The department has stated that the agent fired defensive sH๏τs to protect himself and others. A spokesperson said Sunday that the agency stands by its original account.

However, in a written statement taken in September 2025 by attorneys representing Martinez’s family, Joshua Orta provided a different version of events.

In that statement, Orta said he and Martinez were attempting to comply with officers’ instructions to turn around near the scene of a crash on South Padre Island.

He wrote that traffic was congested and that he did not see Martinez intentionally run over an agent.

Orta’s statement described officers shouting commands and drawing weapons before sH๏τs were fired through the driver’s side window.

He wrote that Martinez was unarmed and not resisting at the time he was sH๏τ.

The statement had not yet been formally signed, but Orta had indicated he intended to cooperate with investigators hired by the Martinez family, according to Alex Stamm, an attorney representing Rachel Reyes, Martinez’s mother.

Stamm said Orta’s death is “an awful tragedy” and noted that the family has now lost a critical eyewitness.

Joshua Orta’s stepfather, John Arriaga, confirmed Orta’s death and said he had shown signs of emotional distress in the months following the shooting.

According to Arriaga, Orta had expressed a desire to speak publicly and provide testimony about what he witnessed.

Preliminary information from San Antonio police indicates that Orta was driving at a high rate of speed when he lost control of his vehicle while attempting to exit a highway around 1 a.m. Saturday. The vehicle struck a utility pole and caught fire.

Orta died at the scene. Three other occupants, including his stepsister, were able to escape but sustained injuries. Authorities have stated the crash was not connected to the 2025 shooting.

The fatal encounter involving Ruben Ray Martinez remains under investigation by the Texas Rangers, a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety that reviews officer-involved shootings. Officials have not released the names of the federal agents involved.

Martinez’s mother, Rachel Reyes, has continued to call for transparency, saying she was surprised by aspects of the federal account described in internal documents.

“I was shocked and insulted,” she said in a recent interview, maintaining that her son was not confrontational and did not pose a threat.

The case has drawn comparisons to other fatal encounters involving federal immigration agents, including the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in early 2026.

Those incidents prompted public demonstrations and renewed scrutiny of use-of-force policies during immigration enforcement operations.

Under Department of Homeland Security policy, ᴅᴇᴀᴅly force may be used only when an officer has a reasonable belief that a subject poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury.

The policy also advises officers to avoid placing themselves in positions where lethal force becomes the only option.

With Joshua Orta’s death, legal observers say the absence of a key eyewitness may make it more difficult to reconcile conflicting accounts of what occurred on March 15, 2025.

Martinez’s family has indicated they will continue pursuing legal action and seeking full disclosure of all available evidence related to the shooting.