An ICE agent who shot a Venezuelan man and is accused by Minnesota prosecutors of lying about the incident was charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime in Minnesota on Monday.
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ICE agent Christian Castro was charged with four counts of assault in the second degree and one count of falsely reporting a crime related to the January shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis during an attempted immigration arrest, Minnesota prosecutors announced on Monday afternoon.
The charges against Castro accuse him of shooting through the front door of a residence “with the intent to cause fear of immediate bodily harm or death to the four adults who were just inside the door,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference Monday. There is a nationwide warrant for his arrest, she said.
“Mr. Castro fired his service weapon at the front door of the home, knowing there were people who had just run inside that presented absolutely no threat to him or anyone else,” Moriarty said. “The bullet punched through the front door and struck Mr. Sosa-Celis’ leg before traveling through a closet and lodging in the wall of a child’s bedroom.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges against Castro.
On the night of January 14, ICE agents confronted Sosa-Celis and another Venezuelan man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, in an immigration enforcement action near their home, according to authorities. Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg during the incident, authorities said.
Moriarty said Tuesday that both men were in Minnesota “lawfully” and “this was a case of mistaken identity.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in its original statement that the shooting occurred after Sosa-Celis and Aljorna allegedly attacked the officer with a shovel and broom. The two men were charged with assaulting the officer, but all charges were later dismissed with prejudice after Minnesota prosecutors said new evidence was “materially inconsistent with the allegations” against the men.
Video footage released of the incident in February and April appeared to contradict the agency’s account, showing one man standing with a shovel near a home before dropping it while another man runs towards the residence empty-handed. An officer then tackles one of the men.
In mid-February, then-DHS acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said a review of video evidence revealed that two officers appeared “to have made untruthful statements” in sworn testimony.
Both officers were placed on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation, Lyons said in the statement. He added that “a joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements.
“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” Lyons said at the time. “Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution,” he said.
Moriarty said at the Tuesday news conference that Castro “was not under any physical threat when he fired his weapon, or even beforehand.”
“He was not hit by a shovel or a broom. In fact, he was not hit at all,” she said.
The charges come a month after another ICE agent who was part of the federal immigration surge in Minnesota earlier this year was charged with felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. The agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., was accused of pointing a gun at the heads of two civilians in a vehicle, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in April.
On Feb. 5, Morgan was driving an SUV with no markings when he pulled up next to another vehicle and “pointed his duty weapon directly at both victims while continuing to drive illegally on the shoulder” of a highway, she said. The driver then called 911.
For “a federal agent, our opinion is that illegally driving on a shoulder, pulling up to a car and pointing a gun at the heads of two community members who are not doing anything at the time is well beyond the scope of their authority,” she said.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges and accusations against Morgan.
The Trump administration sent 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota at the end of November for the immigration enforcement operation dubbed Metro Surge.
Amid the crackdown, immigration authorities shot and killed two U.S. citizens — Renee Good, 37, a mother of young children, and Alex Pretti, 37, an intensive care unit nurse at a local Veterans Affairs hospital — in separate confrontations. The killings, which were captured in videos from the scene, led to a groundswell of outrage and massive protests across the country. The deaths also drew stark criticism from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers.
