Report: Feds charge ICE agent Christian Castro in connection with Minneapolis shooting
The single charge is far less than those sought by local federal prosecutors.
This post has been republished from the Minnesota Reformer under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Federal prosecutors have charged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro with making false statements about the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis Jan. 14, the New York Times reported Thursday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the case.
The Times reported that the indictment will be unsealed after Castro is taken into custody.
The federal charge against an ICE agent is a rare move for the administration of President Donald Trump, which still has not charged any of the agents involved in the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The single charge against Castro is far less than the civil rights violations originally sought by local federal prosecutors. But officials at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. insisted the charges be significantly downgraded, according to reporting from ProPublica.
Castro is also charged in Minnesota with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. He is accused of firing his gun through the closed front door of a north Minneapolis home, hitting Cesar-Solis in the leg and endangering other people in the home.
Castro accused Sosa-Celis and another Venezuelan immigrant of assaulting him with a broom and a snow shovel before Castro opened fire, leading to assault charges against the two men that were dropped after surveillance footage proved Castro’s statements false.
In an email obtained by ProPublica, Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota in charge of the case, told attorneys for Sosa-Celis and other victims that he “objected in the strongest possible terms” to his bosses’ decision not to pursue civil rights charges.
Castro was released from a Texas county jail on Aug. 27, 90 days after his arrest by Texas Rangers, a state law enforcement agency, pursuant to the warrant related to his Minnesota charges.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blocked Castro’s extradition to Minnesota, prompting a lawsuit from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. A federal judge in that case declined to force the extradition, paving the way for Castro’s release.
Minnesota authorities told the federal court that Castro was in a romantic relationship with a woman in Mexico and owned property there, making him a flight risk.
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