An ICE agent accused by Minnesota prosecutors of shooting a Venezuelan immigrant and lying about it was arrested Friday.
Investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension located the agent in Texas, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said in a news release Friday.
Christian Castro was taken into custody by law enforcement officials from Texas and Minnesota Friday morning on charges of assault in the second degree and falsely reporting a crime in connection with the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis during an attempted immigration arrest on Jan. 14.
The incident occurred during the Department of Homeland Security’s three-month-long immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, which the agency dubbed as “Operation Metro Surge.”
Castro is accused of firing a gunshot into a home, knowing it was occupied by multiple people and injuring Sosa-Celis, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon. Court records do not yet list an attorney for Castro.
On the night of Jan. 14, ICE officers 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, authorities said.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has said that both men were in Minnesota “lawfully” and that “this was a case of mistaken identity.”
At the time, DHS claimed the shooting occurred after Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were alleged to have attacked the officer with a shovel and a broom. They 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 them.
Video of the incident released in February and April appeared to contradict the agency’s account, showing one man standing with a shovel near a home before he drops it while another man runs toward the residence empty-handed. An officer then tackles one of the men.
A review of video evidence revealed that two officers appeared “to have made untruthful statements” in sworn testimony, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in mid-February. Both officers were placed on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation.
Castro is the second federal agent to be criminally charged for conduct during Operation Metro Surge, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
Last month, another ICE agent 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, Moriarty said in April.
