ICE Officer Charged With Lying About Minneapolis Shooting After Video Casts Doubt on Claims Venezuelan Man Attacked

A federal grand jury indicted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer for lying about a shooting that wounded a Venezuelan man and left a Minneapolis neighbourhood in uproar.

The case against Christian Castro is one of the few instances in which the Department of Justice has moved to hold an ICE agent criminally accountable during President Donald Trump's mass deportation drive.

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota charged Castro, 52, with making false statements about the events preceding the 14 January 2026 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The indictment, handed up on 2 September, remains under seal.

Shooting Through a Closed Door

Castro was working in north Minneapolis as part of Operation Metro Surge, the Department of Homeland Security's largest-ever immigration enforcement operation, when he and another officer chased Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna to a duplex where Aljorna lived with Sosa-Celis. Prosecutors allege Castro fired through the home's closed front door.

The bullet struck Sosa-Celis in the thigh before travelling through a closet and lodging in the wall of a child's bedroom, according to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office. Castro was outside and alone in the front yard when he fired, the Attorney General's office said. Homeland Security's initial account differed sharply.

The department's 15 January press release claimed Castro had been struck with shovels, brooms or other weapons, an assertion Ellison's office says is false and which remains uncorrected on the DHS website. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were initially charged with assaulting a federal officer; both cases were dropped after surveillance video surfaced.

Video Evidence Undoes Official Account

Castro told FBI investigators that he and a fellow officer had been beaten with a snow shovel and a broom handle by the two Venezuelan men, prompting him to open fire in self-defence, according to NewsNation's source. Surveillance footage and witness statements contradicted that version, prosecutors say.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged Castro in state court on 18 May with four felony counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one misdemeanour count of falsely reporting a crime.

Moriarty told reporters that Castro allegedly fired his gun 'with the intent to cause fear of immediate bodily harm or death to the four adults who were just inside the door'.

Ellison was blunt about the discrepancy between the official DHS narrative and what investigators found. 'Nobody is above the law, including ICE agents,' he said, adding that 'the State of Minnesota must hold people accountable for violating the law and for harming Minnesotans'.

The federal charge adds to that state case rather than replacing it. Castro faces six separate counts related to lying to investigators, though the indictment's contents will not be public until unsealed, a NewsNation source said. Castro is expected to be transferred into federal custody imminently.

An Extradition Fight and a Downgraded Charge

The case became entangled in an unusual interstate standoff after Castro was arrested by Texas Rangers and Homeland Security's inspector general in Cameron County on 29 May.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott refused to sign Minnesota's extradition warrant, prompting Ellison to sue him. Under Texas law, Castro had to be released if not extradited within ninety days; he walked free from a Brownsville jail on 27 August after a federal judge declined to intervene.

Ellison's office had warned that Castro, who maintains a relationship and property in Mexico, posed a flight risk given his proximity to the border.

Ellison called the episode 'not politics' and 'not a game'.

The federal charges brought this week are notably narrower than what career prosecutors initially sought.

According to internal ProPublica documents reported by Minnesota Reformer, Justice Department officials in Washington blocked prosecutors from pursuing civil rights violations against Castro, insisting instead on the single false-statements charge now reflected in the indictment.

Matthew Evans, the assistant US attorney handling the case, wrote in an email to victims' lawyers that he had objected 'in the strongest possible terms' to that decision.

ICE's then-acting director, Todd Lyons, addressed Castro's suspension when it was first announced in February. 'The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethical conduct,' Lyons said. 'Violations of this sacred sworn oath will not be tolerated.'

The shooting occurred against a violent backdrop in Minneapolis, coming roughly a week after the fatal shooting of Renee Good and roughly a week and a half before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, both involving federal immigration agents during the same operation. No agent has yet been charged in either of those deaths.

Castro's case now heads towards a federal arraignment, with the Minnesota state charges still pending separately in Hennepin County.