ICE agent charged in shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minnesota.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 17 hours ago
- 4 min read
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO and MITCH SMITH
State prosecutors earlier this week charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with assault in the January shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis, an incident that sparked violent protests at the height of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The identity of the agent accused of firing the shot, Christian Castro, 52, had not been disclosed until Monday. Castro was charged with four counts of second-degree assault, a felony, and one count of falsely reporting a crime, a misdemeanor.
“His federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota,” said Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County attorney.
In a statement, ICE officials described the state prosecution as “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.” But the statement did not defend the actions of the agents at the scene that night. ICE officials said that “lying under oath is a serious federal offense” and that federal prosecutors were “actively investigating these statements.”
“Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face disciplinary action, including termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution,” the statement from ICE said.
It was not immediately clear whether Castro had a lawyer. Court records showed an active warrant for him and a bond of $200,000.
Efforts to reach Castro by phone and email did not immediately yield a response. A woman who identified herself as his wife said in a phone call that she had no information about the charges.
A state investigation into the Jan. 14 shooting of the immigrant, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, had been stymied by the refusal of federal agencies to share information, including the names of the two agents involved in a chase that preceded the shooting.
Sosa-Celis, who was shot in the leg, was one of three people shot by federal agents during the immigration crackdown in Minnesota over the winter. Agents also shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Law enforcement officers are allowed to use deadly force if they reasonably perceive an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to themselves or someone else.
Minnesota prosecutors have acknowledged that they face formidable practical and legal challenges in prosecuting federal agents for on-duty conduct. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution gives federal officials broad immunity from state prosecution, but Minnesota officials say those protections are not absolute. If Castro seeks to have the case moved to federal court and a judge agrees, Moriarty said her office would continue to pursue the prosecution there.
The assault charges carry a minimum prison sentence of three years if convicted.
The Trump administration said the crackdown, known as Operation Metro Surge, would root out illegal immigration and fraud amid insufficient cooperation from state and local officials. Minnesota’s Democratic leaders condemned the campaign as a constitutionally dubious occupation motivated by political animus. Federal judges expressed alarm about some of the administration’s actions.
After the surge, Minnesota’s attorney general and the Hennepin County attorney, both Democrats, took the unusual step of asking a federal judge to make federal authorities provide evidence from all three shootings. That lawsuit is unresolved.
According to the criminal complaint, on the night of the shooting, the FBI and state law enforcement agents jointly interviewed an ICE agent who said he was the partner of the agent who fired his gun. The agent who was interviewed, who was involved in the chase but did not shoot his weapon, identified Castro, according to the complaint. State officials later subpoenaed Castro’s medical records from a hospital where he sought treatment, Moriarty said. She said those records corroborated that Castro was at the scene of the shooting that night.
Federal officials have not confirmed that it was Castro who fired the shot. The FBI excluded state agents from the investigation after that first joint interview, prosecutors said.
The shooting of Sosa-Celis, who was in the United States without legal status, touched off hours of violent protests in Minneapolis. Some protesters ransacked the vehicles of federal agents and threw fireworks at officers. The scene became so tense that investigators left before they had finished collecting evidence.
Federal officials initially defended the shooting. The agent encountered Sosa-Celis after one of Sosa-Celis’ housemates fled in a car and led agents on a chase to his home.
Federal officials at first described a minutes-long attack on the agent there, with a broom and shovel. Kristi Noem, then secretary of homeland security, described it as “an attempted murder of federal law enforcement.”
Both Sosa-Celis and the housemate, Alfredo A. Aljorna, who was also from Venezuela and in the country illegally, were charged with federal felonies.
Within weeks, the federal government’s account began to unravel. The charges against both men were dropped, and federal officials said they were instead investigating the agents. Video footage of the incident obtained by The New York Times showed no sustained attack with a shovel and contradicted the agent’s claim of a roughly three-minute beating. The encounter lasted about 12 seconds, the video showed.
Moriarty said on Monday that her office was continuing to investigate the shootings of Good and Pretti, but she provided no timeline for charging decisions in those cases. In an interview, Moriarty said her office was investigating more than 30 additional incidents of possible criminal misconduct by federal agents.
Castro is the second immigration agent to be charged by Moriarty’s office over actions this winter. In April, Moriarty charged Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with assault, saying the agent had pointed a gun at motorists along a state highway in February. Morgan, 35, of Maryland, has an active warrant for his arrest, court records show.
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