Charles Exum is a CBP agent who shot Marimar Martinez five times on 10/04/2025, pictured above captured in bodycam footage through the trigger guard of another immigration officer’s rifle. Charles Exum did this during Operation Midway Blitz, a large-scale punitive action by ICE against the citizenry Chicago IL, on Oct. 4, 2025. Charles Exum swerved his car to potentially instigate a collision with the car Marimar Martinez was driving, and then apparently shot her for the crime of following him in order to alert her community to the presence of DHS agents. After the federal government dropped charges against Marimar Martinez relating to her arrest, she sued DHS over her brush with state violence on 02/11/2026.
CBP agent Charles Exum lives in Robbinston ME, with his wife and dogs. His property straddles the border between Robbinston and Calais, a town directly northwest. Charles Exum and his wife are both originally from Georgia. As of January 2026, Charles Exum has been reportedly working as a CBP agent for 23 years.
- Year of Birth: 1966 (data brokers appear to have conflated records concerning Charles Exum with his wife, so this might be wrong)
- Web identities: charles.exum
Identity trace
CBP agent Charles Exum was exposed in the 2021 Luxottica data leak. He used his DHS.gov email address as his contact, and set his address as a P.O. box in Calais ME. Several news stories, including Reuters, state that Charles Exum drove back to Calais ME after he failed to kill Marimar Martinez.
Investigating Charles Exum’s presence eventually led to his wife’s social media accounts. One of her photos on Instagram features a Border Patrol K9 unit wearing a “U.S. Border Patrol” vest.
As a CBP agent
As summarized by Wikipedia, current to 02/16/2025:
“On the morning of October 4, 2025, Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen and school teacher, was driving in her neighborhood of Brighton Park, Chicago when she observed federal immigration agents patrolling the area. She followed them in her car while honking her horn and shouting “la migra” to warn neighbors about the presence of immigration officers. While she was driving alongside a white Chevy Tahoe driven by Border Patrol agents, the two vehicles made contact. Martinez alleges that the Border Patrol vehicle sideswiped her, while government prosecutors later claimed that Martinez had attempted to “ram” the Border Patrol vehicle. A Border Patrol agent, identified in court filings as Charles Exum, then shot Martinez five times.”
“Martinez then drove to a car repair shop, was discovered by paramedics, taken to a hospital, treated for her gunshot wounds and released.”
“On October 5, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Martinez with assaulting federal officers. The charging documents stated that Martinez “forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, and interfered with an officer of the United States.””
“A number of revelations complicated the government’s case in the following weeks. Defense attorneys discovered that the agent who shot Martinez was allowed by Border Patrol to drive his vehicle 1,100 miles to the agent’s home base in Maine after the shooting, before the defense could inspect it for signs of damage. The judge handling the case expressed shock that the government had not kept the vehicle preserved as evidence in Chicago, ordering its immediate return. Subsequent court filings revealed that the vehicle had been buffed with a rag by a mechanic in Maine who attempted to remove scuff marks, but it had not been otherwise repaired.”
“Another set of revelations concerned the text messages that the Border Patrol agent, Charles Exum, sent in the aftermath of the shooting. Exum reportedly bragged about the shooting to other agents in the messages, writing that he was “up for another round of fuck around and find out”. Exum also sent agents a link to a news story about the shooting, telling them to “read it … I fired 5 shots and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.””
“Federal prosecutors abruptly moved to dismiss the charges on November 20. The judge handling the case dismissed the charges “with prejudice”, meaning that they cannot be refiled.”
“After the charges were dropped, defense attorneys called for the release of evidence in the case, including bodycam footage that they say contradicted the government’s narrative. They argued that the release of the evidence was necessary to counter the government’s false assertions about Martinez, including the government labeling her a “domestic terrorist” even after the charges had been dropped. After the shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, Martinez’s lawyers also argued that the evidence revealed a larger pattern of government misconduct.”
“Government lawyers opposed the release of the evidence. They argued that the video contained “sensitive material” that the public should not see. They also argued that Exum’s text messages about the shooting should not be released because they “will serve only to further sully Agent Exum, his family and co-workers.””
“The judge handling the case ordered the release of the evidence in February, 2026. The judge observed that the evidence needed to be released because it “will counter the government’s public narrative of [Martinez] and her actions.””
“The released evidence appeared to contradict key elements of the government narrative. In the bodycam footage, Exum appeared to turn the steering wheel of his vehicle to the left, toward Martinez, immediately prior to their collision. He initiated the turn toward Martinez after another agent in the vehicle said “it’s time to get aggressive.” The recording ran counter to the government claim that Martinez attempted to “ram” the agents. It appeared to support Martinez’s claim that the Border Patrol agents swerved toward her vehicle. Exum was subsequently put on administrative leave.”
According, also, to the Guardian:
“Text messages, meanwhile, show Bovino sending encouragement to Exum after the shooting.”
““In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much yet left to do!!” Bovino wrote to Exum on 4 October, hours after Martinez was shot, in an email urging him to put off his retirement.”
“Another text exchange highlighted by lawyers for Martinez showed that when a fellow agent asked Exum if his superiors were being “supportive” after the shooting, Exum replied: “Big time. Everyone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself … according to Bovino.””
In his community
What social media presence Charles Exum has does not indicate he spends much time socially engaged with his community. He and his wife seem to spend a good amount of time staring out into a nearby cove, and his wife walks her dog along the coastline sometimes.
One of Charles Exum’s dogs was Izza, a retired Border Patrol K9 unit. As of June 2017, Izza was infirm and only capable of moving with the aid of a canine wheelchair. We regret the usage of canines as tools of state oppression, forgive them for being trained to harm people, and hope that Izza is at peaceful rest. At the same time, we hope Izza’s passing broke Charles Exum’s heart, and that he can’t think of her without experiencing genuine emotional pain.
Online
Several photos of Charles Exum exist on his wife’s social media accounts. He always looks like some version of an asshole, including but not limited to a dazed one and a petulant one, in every single one of them.
Charles Exum’s father constantly posts on Facebook. He can’t shut himself up. On 09/29/2025, Charles Exum’s father shared an obviously falsified image purporting to be a mugshot of Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, presenting it as real. On 11/15/2022, Charles Exum’s father shared a defamatory infographic that claimed a photo of Nazi SS officer Oskar Gröning was actually a photo of George Soros. Soros is a frequent target of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Charles Exum’s father is a viciously bigoted and ignorant piece of trash, and it is very clear where his son gets it from.
Charles Exum himself does not appear to maintain an obvious social media presence. He may have scrubbed his digital presence following his shooting of Marimar Martinez.
In conclusion
The Department of Homeland Security has trained the worst people you can think of to be armed vigilantes. The resultant slouched, howling freaks posture themselves as enforcers of the law while holding the law and the lives of everyday citizens in contempt. Evidence released in light of the crimes committed by Charles Exum make clear that command and culture at DHS encourages agents to brutalize people, to take what opportunities to levy violence against people they can. It’s the kind of environment where Charles Exum could gleefully brag to his coworkers about the ratio of bullets fired to entry & exit wounds left in Marimar Martinez’s body. It is only a matter of time before a piece of bloodthirsty scum like Charles Exum finds another chance to murder an innocent person. Maybe it will once again be someone whose only sin is trying to warn their community that DHS is near. Maybe Charles Exum will simply murder someone because he thinks it’s a fun thing to do.