TEXAS (TNND) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan man in Minnesota and lying under oath was arrested in Texas on Friday.
A warrant was issued earlier this month for the arrest of 52-year-old Christian Castro after investigators charged him with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) tracked Castro to Texas, where he was taken into custody by Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General agents and Texas Rangers. BCA investigators were also present at the arrest.
“Today’s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement.
The charges stem from a Jan. 14 incident in Minneapolis during an ICE operation targeting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, whom authorities say illegally entered the United States from Venezuela in August 2022.
Homeland Security officials said Sosa-Celis fled from a traffic stop before running into a home. Investigators allege Castro fired his weapon through the home’s front door without knowing several people had just entered.
“The bullet traveled through the door and struck one victim in the leg before making its final impact in the wall of a child’s room,” according to the attorney’s office.
Following the shooting, Sosa-Celis and another Venezuelan man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, were accused by federal authorities of assaulting an officer with a broom handle and snow shovel during the confrontation. A federal judge later dismissed those charges, prompting an investigation into whether two ICE officers lied under oath about the incident.
During court proceedings, the officers’ account of the moments leading up to the shooting differed significantly from the testimony provided by the two defendants and three eyewitnesses. Claims that an officer was assaulted with a broom and snow shovel also were not corroborated by available video evidence.
The attorney’s office said Castro is the second federal agent to be charged for conduct in Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale immigration enforcement effort in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area that the Department of Homeland Security described as its biggest immigration operation to date.
“Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation,” ICE Director Todd Lyons said before the arrest. “Lying under oath is a serious federal offense.”
Tensions escalated during the weekslong operation, and the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers sparked widespread protests and renewed scrutiny over officers’ conduct.