ICE agent charged with shooting, wounding man during Operation Metro Surge is arrested in Minneapolis
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A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and wounded a man in Minneapolis last January — and then allegedly lied to the FBI about it — was arrested Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Christian Castro, 52, was taken into custody by Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents at about 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis, on a warrant for his arrest. He was booked in the Hennepin County Jail just after 4 p.m., and remained there as of Thursday morning.
He’s due to make an initial appearance in Hennepin County court on Thursday afternoon on state charges, and in federal court in St. Paul on Friday morning on federal charges.
Those charges stem from the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis in north Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge.
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Castro shot Sosa-Celis, an immigrant from Venezuela, in his leg on Jan. 14 after firing through the closed door of his home. Castro had pursued Sosa-Celis to the house after a car chase involving Sosa-Celis’ roommate Alfredo Aljorna.
Two days after the shooting, federal prosecutors relied on Castro’s narrative to charge Aljorna and Sosa Celis with assaulting a federal agent. Prosecutors dropped the charges in February after video from the city surveillance cameras showed that the men had not assaulted anyone.
Castro spent three months in a Texas jail awaiting extradition on state-level assault charges from Hennepin County. He was released from jail on Aug. 27 after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to approve an extradition request from Minnesota — and after a federal judge in Texas, declined to force the Republican governor’s hand following a lawsuit by DFL Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Castro was then indicted on federal charges of making materially false statements to the FBI following the shooting. The government alleges that Castro told six separate lies to an FBI agent. The case marks the first time a federal agent has been charged in federal court in connection with Operation Metro Surge.
Castro made an initial appearance on the federal charges in Texas earlier this month, and was released ahead of his scheduled federal court appearance in the Twin Cities on Friday.
