MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed charges against an ICE agent in connection with the January shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan national, in Minneapolis.
Christian J. Castro, 52, is facing four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime.
ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis
The backstory:
The ICE-involved shooting took place near the 600 block of 24th Avenue North just before 7 p.m. on Jan. 14.
Initial reporting detailed federal agents were pursuing a man in a vehicle who had crashed into a snowbank. The man then ran to a nearby home, where a pursuing agent caught up with him and attempted to make an arrest.
An "altercation" between the agent and suspect then ensued, which led to two other people arriving from a nearby apartment, and all three attacking the officer – one armed with a broomstick, according to DHS.
"Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life," DHS initially claimed.
Julio Sosa-Celis, 24, a Venezuelan national, was taken to the hospital for treatment of a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, while Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, 26, was also arrested in its aftermath.
Both men were charged with assaulting a federal agent in the aftermath of the altercation, but the DOJ later requested the charges be dismissed with prejudice, writing in a motion that, "newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit."
Big picture view:
The shooting occurred one week after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by ICE officers and ten days before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal officers. ICE agents under federal investigation
Dig deeper:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office later opened a criminal investigation into two ICE officers after video evidence allegedly showed the agents’ sworn testimony included "untruthful statements."
Court filings filed after the shooting showed the ICE officers’ accounts of the moments leading up to the shooting differed significantly from testimony provided by the two defendants and multiple eyewitnesses.
