An ICE officer accused in a January shooting in Minneapolis turned himself in to federal authorities in South Texas on Thursday and is scheduled to appear in court Friday on charges that he lied about the incident.
Christian Castro, 52, surrendered in McAllen and faces federal counts of making false statements and obstruction of justice, Fox 4 and other outlets reported, citing court papers and the Associated Press. The charges stem from his account of a Jan. 14 shooting in north Minneapolis that wounded Venezuelan national Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg.
Prosecutors say Castro fired through a closed front door after a chase involving Sosa-Celis’ roommate. Video later undercut Castro’s claim that the men attacked officers with a broom and shovel. Federal prosecutors dropped assault charges against the two Venezuelan men. ICE Director Todd Lyons previously said Castro was one of two agents who appeared to have lied about the shooting. Castro was placed on leave.
Minnesota’s Hennepin County Attorney charged Castro in May with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. Minnesota investigators arrested him in Harlingen in late May. Gov. Greg Abbott declined Gov. Tim Walz’s request to extradite him. Texas law caps that kind of detention at 90 days, and Castro was released from the Cameron County Jail on Aug. 27, The New York Times reported.
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota had considered civil-rights charges and then declined to take that case to a grand jury in late August, MPR News reported. The new federal case filed this week focuses on alleged false statements, not the shooting itself as a federal civil-rights count.
Castro is the first immigration officer federally charged in connection with Operation Metro Surge, the winter enforcement push in Minnesota. He remains separately wanted on the Minnesota state charges. It is not clear whether Texas will ever send him north on those counts.
Sosa-Celis survived the gunshot. The case has been a flashpoint between Minnesota Democrats seeking a state trial and Texas and federal officials who have called the state prosecution political.
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