ICE agent charged in nonfatal north Minneapolis shooting arrested in Texas

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who faces charges in Minnesota for shooting a man in the leg during Operation Metro Surge and lying about it was arrested on Friday in Texas, local prosecutors announced.

Christian Castro, 52, was charged earlier this month in Hennepin County with four felony counts of second-degree assault as well as a misdemeanor charge of falsely reporting a crime for shooting through the front door of a north Minneapolis home on Jan. 14 and striking Venezuelan national Julio Sosa-Celis.

He was arrested by agents from the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General and Texas Rangers with investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension present on the scene, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

“Today’s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “The BCA’s investigative work was instrumental in this process and we’re grateful for their collaboration as we pursue accountability for this incident on behalf of Mr. Sosa-Celis, his family, and our community.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is assisting in the prosecution, applauded the arrest in a statement saying “nobody is above the law.”

Castro is the second federal agent to be criminally charged for conduct during Operation Metro Surge, when 3,000 federal agents descended on Minnesota earlier this year in an unprecedented immigration crackdown that ignited widespread protests.

Another ICE agent, Maryland-resident Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., turned himself in to law enforcement earlier this month after being charged with felony assault. The charges allege he pointed a gun at two people in an apparent road rage incident on a highway in Minneapolis.

Federal agents also shot and killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but officers have not been criminally charged as local prosecutors battle the federal government in court for access to evidence in those cases.

Sosa-Celis was shot after federal agents initiated a car pursuit on I-94 in Minneapolis of a different man, Alfredo Aljorna, who was driving a vehicle registered to a person suspected of being in the country illegally.

Sosa-Celis wasn’t in the car but at the house where the chase ended. Castro initially told the FBI that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna repeatedly struck him with a broom and a snow shovel. He said he then drew his gun and “simultaneously fired” a round as they were running toward their home.

Federal prosecutors charged Sosa-Celis and Aljorna with felonies and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused them of attempted murder. The charges were dropped after prosecutors discovered federal agents lied about the incident. The agents were then suspended and an investigation was opened in February.

Sosa-Celis and Aljorna maintained they never attacked Castro, and their version was substantiated by surveillance footage obtained by the New York Times.

Castro was identified mainly through the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Moriarty said, whose investigators got to the scene on Jan. 14 and heard FBI agents identify him.

Castro is expected to try to move the case to federal court to assert immunity under what’s known as the Supremacy Clause, which protects federal agents from local prosecution for reasonably carrying out their duties. Should a judge grant that petition, Moriarty’s office would still prosecute the case.