ICE Officer Charged With Lying About Minnesota Shooting

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has been charged with making false statements to investigators about the circumstances surrounding a shooting during a major immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. The federal indictment, unsealed Friday, alleges that Christian Castro lied when he claimed he was attacked with a broom and a shovel before he shot and wounded a Venezuelan man in January.

The charges stem from an incident in which Castro shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg. According to the indictment, Castro told an FBI agent that a man struck him with a red broom and another with a snow shovel, and that he fired while on the ground as the men ran away. However, investigators allege that Castro had a brief physical encounter with Sosa-Celis and another man, after which the two ran into a home with a 1-year-old child inside. Castro then fired through the front door as the men were closing it, hitting Sosa-Celis.

The indictment states that no one struck Castro with a broom as he described, and no one wielded the broom or shovel in the manner he claimed. Castro faces six counts of making false statements in what is the first federal prosecution of an officer for actions taken during Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities that led to protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers.

Minnesota authorities have separately charged Castro with assault and false reporting related to the same shooting. He turned himself in to federal authorities Thursday evening after being released from jail in Texas, where the governor had declined to immediately sign an extradition warrant.

Federal prosecutors initially charged Sosa-Celis and another man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, with assault but dropped those charges after video evidence suggested Castro may have lied. Castro was suspended from ICE in February.

The case has caused internal turmoil at the Justice Department. A prosecutor on the case, Matthew Evans, said he objected to the decision to charge Castro only with false statements rather than more serious civil rights violations, alleging that higher-ups blocked such charges. Evans has since been fired, and the Justice Department is investigating his handling of the case. A person familiar with the investigation said the civil rights probe is ongoing and additional charges could still be brought.

Sosa-Celis's lawyer, Robin Wolpert, said Castro's statements were meant to "cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification." The ACLU of Minnesota said Sosa-Celis plans to seek damages from the federal government.