ICE officer who shot Venezuelan man in Minneapolis charged with lying to investigators

A source told the Associated Press that Christian Castro, the officer accused of shooting Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg in January, has been charged by US federal prosecutors with making false statements to federal investigators. He had been previously charged in state court.

The ICE officer was released from jail last week after Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott refused to immediately sign an extradition warrant that would surrender him to the Minnesota authorities that had charged Castro separately with assault and false reporting of a crime related to the same shooting.

The Department of Justice was contacted for comment. No attorney is listed for Castro in the case brought by Minnesota, and it was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

The Trump administration launched what it called “Operation Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities in early December 2025. The operation sent thousands of federal agents to arrest immigrants at bus stops, grocery stores and churches, leading to ongoing protests and countless clashes between demonstrators and immigration enforcement officers. Castro was one of those thousands of agents who swarmed Minnesota.

Sosa-Celis was one of three people shot by federal immigration agents during the administration’s operations in Minnesota. Two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were shot and killed by agents during the crackdown.

Robin Wolpert, the attorney representing Sosa-Celis, said in a statement: “Mr. Castro has been indicted for making false statements. But he made them to cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification. Although the evidence strongly supports civil rights charges, the federal government has grossly undercharged this case. Mr. Sosa Celis wants Mr. Castro to be held fully accountable for his crimes.”

Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis of attacking the agents with a shovel and broom. Kristi Noem, the then-secretary of homeland security, described the incident as “an attempted murder of federal law enforcement”.

Federal prosecutors charged Sosa-Celis with assaulting a federal agent, but the charges were dropped after the US attorney’s office cited evidence that was “materially inconsistent” with preliminary hearing testimony. Video released by the city of Minneapolis showed Sosa-Celis dropping the shovel and both men running inside as an agent fired in their direction.

In July, Minnesota prosecutors said they had obtained new evidence in the cases of Good and Pretti, as well as the shooting of Sosa-Celis.

Earlier this week, a federal prosecutor working on the case told lawyers for Sosa-Celis that justice department officials had blocked the prosecutor’s plans to bring civil rights charges against Castro, ProPublica reported.

Castro’s case is a rare example of Trump’s justice department accusing a federal agent of any criminal wrongdoing while on the job. Trump previously gave “total authorization” to federal immigration agents to protect themselves following a series of clashes with protesters. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has claimed that ICE officers have “federal immunity” during the performance of duties.