ICE officer wanted for shooting a man in Minneapolis booked in Cameron County jail
A 52-year-old federal immigration officer wanted for shooting a Venezuelan man in Minnesota was arrested Friday morning in Harlingen, officials confirmed to Channel 5 News.
Christian Castro was taken into custody without incident shortly before 9:30 a.m. at a residence in the 3700 block of Sun Chase Drive in Harlingen and booked into the Cameron County jail, according to a spokesperson with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
It wasn't immediately clear if Castro is a Harlingen resident.
According to The Associated Press, Castro is an officer with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. His arrest happened nearly two weeks after Minneapolis prosecutors charged him with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
ICE Director Todd Lyons said Castro is one of two agents who lied about the circumstances of the shooting.
According to prosecutors, Castro fired through a home's 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., the Associated Press said.
The bullet made its final impact in the wall of a child’s room, according to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
"Federal authorities initially accused 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 opened an investigation into whether officers lied about what happened," according to an Associated Press article.
Video of the incident released by Minneapolis officials 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 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 article stated.
Castro was apprehended by agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and with assistance from the Texas Rangers and the Texas Highway Patrol.
“While the circumstances of this case are unique, the BCA investigative procedures and legal process our agents are following are not,” Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said in a statement. “This arrest represents the next step in a long-established legal process, and we will now begin the work necessary to bring Mr. Castro back to Minnesota to face these charges.”
Castro is facing state charges in connection with the shooting, but the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said the charges could result in a move to transfer the case to federal court.
Additional questions were referred to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.