ICE officer charged over shooting of Venezuelan man in Minnesota

Christian Castro charged with five counts over shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis in Trump immigration crackdown

The federal officer who shot a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration’s militarized immigration crackdown in Minnesota was charged with assault on Monday.

There is a nationwide warrant for the arrest of Christian Castro, 52, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot Julio Sosa-Celis on 14 January. A state investigation into the incident had been hampered by federal agencies’ refusal to share information with state prosecutors.

Castro is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, Mary Moriarty, Hennepin county attorney, said at a news conference.

Moriarty said that Castro’s “federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota”.

“There’s no modern precedent for what happened to the people here in Minnesota,” she said of what transpired during the Minnesota immigration crackdown. “So it requires a lot of us to dig in and look at ways to hold people accountable that we probably never thought we would be looking at in our careers.”

Sosa-Celis, who was shot in the leg and survived, was one of three people shot by federal immigration agents this winter during the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota. Two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were shot and killed by immigration agents during this crackdown.

Federal officers, who are allowed to use deadly force if they reasonably believe they are under threat of death or bodily harm, initially defended the shooting of Sosa-Celis. Agents encountered Sosa-Celis after first chasing another Venezuelan man, Alfredo Aljorna, who sped off in his car, crashed into a snowbank and then ran towards his home, where Sosa-Celis was standing outside with a snow shovel.

Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis of attacking the agents with the shovel and a broom. Kristi Noem, the former secretary of homeland security, described the incident as “an attempted murder of federal law enforcement” and federal prosecutors charged Sosa-Celis with assaulting a federal agent with a shovel.

But the charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were dropped after the US attorney’s office cited evidence that was “materially inconsistent” with preliminary hearing testimony. Video released by the city of Minneapolis showed Sosa-Celis dropping the shovel and both men running inside as an agent fired in their direction.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and justice department officials did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The DHS previously said that lying under oath was a “serious federal offense” and that making false statements could result in an officer being fired or prosecuted.

Hennepin county, which includes Minneapolis, has been conducting investigations into multiple incidents and filed charges in April against an ICE agent for alleged actions while on duty.

Minnesota leaders and the Trump administration have since clashed over which has the authority to investigate and prosecute officers for conduct while on duty. The Trump administration has suggested that Minnesota officials do not have jurisdiction.

State officials have said they do not trust the federal government to investigate itself or hold officers accountable.

Hennepin county continues to investigate Good’s and Pretti’s killings and sued the administration in March over access to evidence in the two cases, as well as in the case involving Sosa-Celis.

Although Moriarty has not charged anyone in either killing, she has said she was confident her office’s investigations will bring transparency, even if not criminal prosecution.