MINNEAPOLIS (AP) 鈥� A federal immigration officer wanted in the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration鈥檚 Minnesota crackdown was arrested Friday in Texas, authorities said.
Christian Castro, of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, was taken into custody 11 days after Minneapolis prosecutors and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
Hennepin County, Minnesota, prosecutors said the state鈥檚 Bureau of Criminal Apprehension located Castro, 52, in Texas and worked with the Texas Rangers and agents from the Department of Homeland Security鈥檚 Office of Inspector General to arrest him.
The Office of Inspector General later denied any involvement, after which the county attorney鈥檚 office changed its statement to say that Inspector General鈥檚 office staff were 鈥減resent at the scene鈥� of the arrest and not that they conducted it.
Messages seeking comment were also left with ICE and the Texas Rangers.
Online court records do not list an attorney for Castro, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he has one.
In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty heralded the arrest as 鈥渁 critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro.鈥�
Castro is the second federal agent to be charged over their conduct during the Minnesota crackdown, which was known as Operation Metro Surge. He is one of two agents that ICE Director Todd Lyons said lied about the circumstances of the incident.
According to prosecutors, Castro fired through a home鈥檚 front door and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S., Moriarty said.
Federal authorities Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. A federal judge later dismissed the charges, and ICE and the Justice Department into whether the officers lied about what happened.
In a statement after the charges were announced, ICE said the U.S. attorney鈥檚 office was investigating statements made by the officers, who could face disciplinary action including being fired and prosecuted. ICE called the Hennepin County attorney鈥檚 action 鈥渦nlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.鈥� DHS’s Inspector General’s Office, which Moriarty credited with assisting in the arrest, is separate from ICE and is meant to serve as a watchdog for DHS agencies, including ICE.
Minneapolis last month showing the moments before Sosa-Celis鈥檚 shooting, captured from a distance by a city-owned security camera.
The video appears to show a person standing with a snow shovel outside the house, near the street, then retreating toward the house and tossing the shovel into the yard. This happens as a person being chased by another person runs up from the street, falls on the sidewalk, gets up, and keeps heading toward the house.
The three appear to scuffle near the front steps for about 10 seconds. The exact moment when Sosa-Celis is shot isn鈥檛 clear. A car with flashing lights pulls up, and another person walks up.
The Trump administration sent thousands of officers to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area as part of President Donald Trump鈥檚 national deportation campaign and considered Operation Metro Surge a success.
But tensions mounted during the weekslong campaign, and the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens and by federal officers sparked mass unrest and raised questions about officers鈥� conduct.
Minnesota leaders and the Trump administration have clashed over who has the authority to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct.
Moriarty鈥檚 office last month with assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car on a highway. He turned himself in last week, and his lawyer disputes the charges.
The county is also investigating Good鈥檚 and Pretti鈥檚 killings and sued the Trump administration in March to gain access to evidence in those cases and the Sosa-Celis shooting.
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