Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced on Monday that her office has charged Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in connection with the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man. A warrant for Castro’s arrest has been issued.
“There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal officers who commit crimes in this state or any other,” Moriarty said at a news conference, adding that her office received no cooperation from the federal government during the investigation. She said Sosa-Celis never posed a threat at the time of the shooting.
MSI previously reported that the charges were filed on May 18 and that prosecutors directly challenged the assertion of federal immunity in a prior article.
The Jan. 14 shooting took place as the Trump administration carried out a wave of immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota that led to multiple deaths and injuries. The state’s officials have increasingly scrutinized federal officers’ conduct during those operations, filing lawsuits and, in this case, criminal charges.
Castro faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each second-degree assault count if convicted. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.