Christian Castro, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot a fleeing man in Minneapolis in January, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for making false statements about the incident, according to a source familiar with the case.
The case, which is still under seal according to the source, who is not authorized to speak publicly about it, adds more scrutiny to the militarized tactics adopted by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge, which flooded Minnesota with roving deportation patrols earlier this year.
The Justice Department’s decision to charge Castro comes as Minnesota was essentially blocked from prosecuting him with four counts of second-degree assault at the state level. The federal charge was first reported by The Associated Press.
On Jan. 14, Castro chased a Venezuelan man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, as he fled into a Minneapolis home, which was occupied at the time, and shot him. Sosa-Celis was initially charged with assaulting an officer, but the case was dropped when prosecutors were presented evidence that contradicted Castro’s claims that he fired his service weapon after being attacked.
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Castro, 52, was arrested in May by Texas Rangers, who were flanked by Minnesota investigators. Castro was kept in a Cameron County jail for the statutory maximum of 90 days — but he was released last week when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to sign extradition papers and successfully fought off Minnesota’s legal challenge trying to force his hand.
While the federal charges break what has been until now an impasse to hold Castro accountable for overly aggressive behavior while on duty, the decision is still sure to draw criticism. According to ProPublica, these new criminal charges are significantly pared down from what federal prosecutors initially planned: deprivation of rights under color of law.
ProPublica cited an email from the lead federal prosecutor, Matthew Evans, to Sosa-Celis’ lawyers on the eve of the indictment that informed the victim about his dashed efforts to make a stronger case. In that email, quoted by ProPublica, Evans wrote that “this is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” adding that “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.”
Hennepin County still has an active warrant for his arrest, although the state investigation could take a backseat to the new federal case.
According to the state complaint, the Minneapolis Police Department received a call from a 911 dispatcher on Jan. 14 at 6:43 p.m. saying that ICE agents were chasing after a man driving a Ford Focus. Two minutes later, local police officers remotely took control of a city camera at a nearby intersection allowing them to monitor what happened next.
At 6:47, Sosa-Celis is seen holding a snow shovel as he steps onto the home’s front lawn. A minute later, the man being chased by ICE agents drives up to the house, gets out of the car and flees, the complaint says. Video shows Castro drive up then chase the man on foot. Sosa-Celis drops the snow shovel as the two get closer.
During a struggle with the ICE agent, the man falls. Sosa-Celis helps him up and the two run inside the house. the complaint says. Three seconds later, Castro can be seen raising his gun and firing a single shot into the house — which was also captured by the city’s nearby “ShotSpotter” acoustic gunshot-detection system.
Sosa-Celis was shot in the right leg, the complaint says. He and two others were arrested by the Department of Homeland Security, which referred to them as “criminal illegal aliens” who “were let into our country by the Biden administration.”
According to the state complaint, another ICE agent later told state investigators and FBI agents that Castro had reported someone swung a broom swung at him and that he was hit twice by a shovel.
In a statement the next day, then-Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that “what we saw last night in Minneapolis was an attempted murder of federal law enforcement. Our officer was ambushed and attacked by three individuals who beat him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms. Fearing for his life, the officer fired a defensive shot.”
However, Minnesota state investigators determined that Castro’s description was a fabrication and charged him with three felony counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime.
This story has been updated with original reporting from NOTUS.
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