A federal grand jury in Minnesota has indicted ICE agent Christian Castro on charges of making false statements to investigators about the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man who was shot in the leg during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. The indictment came Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the charges.
Castro is accused of wrongfully discharging his firearm and misrepresenting the facts of the encounter, which occurred during the ICE operation in Hennepin County.
The federal charge comes after Minneapolis officials, led by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, brought state charges against Castro in August, including four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. A push by Minnesota officials to have Castro extradited from Texas, where he was being held, did not succeed, and Castro was released from detention there. He still faces the state charges.
According to a report from ProPublica, federal prosecutors in Minnesota had initially sought to bring more serious civil rights charges against Castro under the statute prohibiting deprivation of rights under color of law — the same type of charge used against Minneapolis police officers in the killing of George Floyd. Those charges can carry substantial prison sentences.
ProPublica reported that Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney overseeing the case in Minnesota, told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other alleged victims late Tuesday to expect Castro to be charged “only with False Statements,” according to an email reviewed by the outlet. A false-statements charge carries a considerably lighter potential punishment than a civil rights violation would.
“This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” Evans reportedly wrote. “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.”
The Department of Justice has not issued a public statement on the charges against Castro. The case remains open at both the state and federal level, and further developments are expected.
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