Former ICE Officer Pleads Not Guilty to Lying About Minnesota Shooting

A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied to federal law enforcement about being attacked prior to shooting a Venezuelan man during an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota early this year.

Officer Christian Castro made his plea on Sept. 18 before a U.S. magistrate judge. Castro was charged with six federal counts of making false statements concerning the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.

This plea came the day after an appearance in state court, where he was accused of assault and several other crimes.

Castro, 52, was charged by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on May 18 with two counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime relating to the incident during Operation Metro Surge in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Both the federal and state cases were only able to proceed after months of conflict concerning the extradition of Castro from his home state of Texas.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in August in an attempt to compel the state to extradite Castro.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz requested the extradition after Castro was apprehended in Texas in May, but the former ICE officer ended up going back to Minnesota of his own volition after being freed from a Texas jail last month.

Castro is accused of lying to investigators about the nature of the exchange that led to him discharging his weapon into a house and hitting an illegal immigrant.

The former agent turned himself in to federal authorities and was indicted in U.S. District Court earlier this month.

Moriarty alleged that the officer fired his weapon through a front door despite “knowing there were people who had just run inside.” That shot traveled through the door and struck Sosa-Celis in the leg.

Castro was one of two agents involved, both of whom reported that they were assaulted with a shovel and broom handle by three criminal illegal aliens attempting to escape arrest.

ICE later reported the officers appeared to have lied about the incident. They were all placed on leave.

“Mr. Castro is an ICE agent. But his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota,” Moriarty said in a statement.

During a hearing in Texas, Castro was released on a $75,000 bond and with electronic monitoring. He was also forced to surrender his passport and firearms.

The shooting was one of several incidents that took place during an immigration enforcement surge in January that took place in Minneapolis and surrounding areas.

The Minnesota enforcement operations took place in light of numerous reports and evidence of fraud, including the misuse of federal funds, allegedly perpetrated by illegal immigrants in the area.

Abbott told reporters he would not respond to Minnesota’s extradition demands until officials from the state “acknowledge their fault in the fraud that took place, and they fully repay the United States of America for the fraud they committed.”

Castro’s attorney did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

Jill McLaughlin and Troy Myers contributed to this report.