A state prosecutor in Minnesota announced Monday that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has been charged in a Jan. 14, nonfatal shooting of Venezuelan man Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the state, a case that has already moved through the federal court system.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference that her office charged ICE officer Christian Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, and that her office issued a warrant for his arrest. Moriarty said Castro’s federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for alleged criminal conduct in Minnesota, adding that her office received no cooperation from the federal government.
Moriarty said Sosa-Celis was not a threat. She said Castro fired through a home’s front door and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where Sosa-Celis and Aljorna lived. She said both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S.
The charges announced Monday come after federal allegations tied to the same confrontation were dropped. The case involving Sosa-Celis and Aljorna had included claims by federal authorities that they beat an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the encounter, but prosecutors later moved for the dismissal and a federal judge granted it.
In a joint effort to revisit what happened, the federal government’s investigation shifted toward the officers involved. According to ICE, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is investigating statements from officers, and the outcome could include disciplinary action ranging from being fired to criminal prosecution. ICE, in a statement, criticized the state attorney’s action and said Hennepin County’s move was “unlawful” and “nothing more than a political stunt.”
Moriarty said her office would continue to pursue the state case even if Castro’s defense tries to move it from state court to federal court. She also said that a presidential pardon would not be possible for the state charges even if Castro were found guilty in federal court, according to her comments at the news conference.
The Minnesota case has played out against a backdrop of tension between state officials and the Trump administration over authority to investigate and prosecute federal officers. The AP reported that the administration sent thousands of officers to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area as part of the president’s national deportation campaign and considered an operation in the area a success, while state and local officials raised concerns about how officers handled confrontations and who could hold them accountable.
Moriarty said Hennepin County has been investigating multiple incidents during the crackdown. Her office last month charged Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with two counts of second-degree assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car on a highway, though he remains at large, and she said her office had made “substantial progress” in apprehending him. Moriarty said her office is also investigating the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and sued the administration in March to gain access to evidence in those cases and in the one involving Sosa-Celis.
The federal case connected to Sosa-Celis and Aljorna was dismissed after a motion by the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota. The AP reported that the U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said the newly discovered evidence was “materially inconsistent” with the allegations in the criminal complaint and with evidence presented at the preliminary hearing, and that dismissal with prejudice would “serve the interests of justice,” meaning the charges could not be refiled.
Minneapolis also released video showing moments before the shooting, which was captured from a distance by a city-owned security camera. The footage appears to show someone holding a snow shovel outside near the street before retreating toward the house and tossing the shovel into the yard as a person being chased runs up, falls on the sidewalk, gets up and continues toward the house. The video shows the three individuals scuffling near the front steps for about 10 seconds, with the exact moment of the shooting not clearly visible, the report said.
Moriarty said Castro fired from the yard through the home’s front door knowing people were inside, and that the bullet traveled through the door and struck Sosa-Celis’s leg before its final impact in a child’s room. She said her office’s prosecution would proceed despite the federal investigation’s separate review.
A Minnesota prosecutor’s decision to file state charges after federal charges were dismissed underscores the continuing dispute over how federal immigration-enforcement conduct should be reviewed. It also places Christian Castro’s alleged actions in the center of a case that, state officials say, requires a state-led accountability process even as federal authorities examine officers’ statements.