CHICAGO — A trove of evidence was released Tuesday in the controversial shooting of Marimar Martinez by a Border Patrol agent at the height of Operation Midway Blitz last October, including a body-worn camera video showing the tense moments just before their vehicles collided and text messages sent later by the agent joking and bragging about the shooting.

“It’s time to get aggressive and get the (expletive) out,” one agent says on a body-cam video as horns blare on Kedzie Avenue in Brighton Park, where Martinez had been following the agents through the neighborhood.

Seconds later, the driver, Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum, appears to jerk the steering wheel to the left, in the direction of Martinez’s vehicle alongside them. The video jolts, apparently capturing the collision between the agents’ Chevrolet Tahoe and Martinez’s car.

“Be advised we have been struck!” one of the agents in the vehicle yells to a dispatcher. Exum then gets out of the vehicle and moves off-camera and five rapid-succession gunshots are heard.

“We have shots fired, shots fired, we need backup,” an agent said into a radio.

“We’re on south Kuh-DEE-zee, near highway 55,” the agent says, butchering the street name.

Already, bystanders can be heard screaming expletives at the agents.

The materials, released publicly by the U.S. attorney’s office after a judge agreed to lift a protective order, also included an email to Exum from Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, the now-demoted public face of the Trump administration’s ongoing deportation push, praising the agent on the afternoon of the shooting.

“Good afternoon,” read the email, which was sent at 3:11 p.m. on Oct. 4. “I would like to extend an offer to you to extend your retirement beyond age 57….In light of your excellent service in Chicago, you have much left to do!!”

Exum, meanwhile, exchanged a series of texts with his wife as well as a group of fellow agents under the name “Posse Chat.” In one of them, someone Exum identified as “the guy from Vermont” wrote, “Good job brother, glad you are unharmed and get to live to tell the story.”

“You are a legend among agents you better f—– know that. Beers on me when I see you at training,” the agent texted Exum, the records show.

Another unidentified person texted Exum, “That’s awesome! You did REAL GOOD” with a heart eyes emoji. He responded, “Thanks you mam.”

Exum repeatedly told others in his chats that Martinez had tried to run him over with her vehicle and that he fired through her front windshield. At one point, he shared a link to a news story headlined “Federal agents taunted Chicago woman to ‘do something’ before shooting her, attorney claims.” Underneath the link, Exum wrote “LMAO.”

In another message on the “Posse Chat,” someone asked Exum if the bosses had been supportive.

“Big time,” Exum replied. “Everyone has been including Chief Bovino, Chief Banks, Sec Noem and El Jefe himself…according to Bovino.”

Exum appeared to reference Trump in the “El Jefe himself” response, which translates to “the Boss himself.”

Another text showed an unidentified family member told Exum: “Pritzker is saying bad things about you this morning.”

“Awe, I cry,” Exum replied. “That hurt my feeling.”

The evidence offered a rare, behind-the-scenes look at one of the highest-profile investigations of Operation Midway Blitz, where Trump administration officials, in a playbook that has now become familiar in other cities, almost immediately labeled of Martinez as a “domestic terrorist” after she was shot — a narrative the government has refused to retract even after assault charges against Martinez were dropped.

Lawyers for Martinez, meanwhile, announced Tuesday that they plan to file a civil lawsuit over her shooting. A news conference to discuss the litigation and evidence in the investigation is set for Wednesday morning.

In agreeing to lift a protective order last week, U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis said the federal government has shown “zero concern” about ruining the reputation of Martinez, a U.S. citizen and Chicago resident who is presumed innocent under our legal system.

Martinez’s lawyer, Christopher Parente, said the evidence shows the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to smear his client were “absurd.”

“You can’t call a U.S. citizen with no criminal history, who is a Montessori school teacher, a domestic terrorist, which is such a loaded word in this country,” Parente said last week.

Prosecutors had alleged Martinez was part of a convoy of civilians who were following agents on Oct. 4 when she rammed Exum’s vehicle near 39th Street and Kedzie Avenue, prompting Exum to jump out of his Chevrolet Tahoe and fire five shots, wounding Martinez seven times.

Martinez’s attorneys argued it was Exum who sideswiped Martinez and that his extreme use of force was completely unjustified. They also alleged evidence tampering, saying Exum was inexplicably allowed to drive the Tahoe more than 1,000 miles back to his home base in Maine, where a Border Patrol mechanic attempted to “wipe off” some of the scuff marks from the crash.

After the charges against Martinez were dropped on Nov. 20, it’s since been revealed in court that Martinez’s car is part of a second, ongoing criminal investigation into the shooting, which is being handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in South Bend, Indiana.

Later this month, Martinez is scheduled to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress as a guest of U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, a Chicago Democrat.

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