Sept. 17 (UPI) — An Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent is in custody in Minnesota on charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime stemming from a shooting in Minneapolis in January.
ICE agent Christian Castro, 52, was booked into the Hennepin County Jail around 4 p.m. CDT Wednesday. He is charged with four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime. He has not yet entered a plea. His bail was set at $200,000. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.
Castro drove to Minneapolis to turn himself in but was arrested before that could happen, The Guardian reported.
Castro was part of the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota in January. The agents arrested thousands of people, battled with protesters and shot three people, including U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Good and Pretty died.
Castro was recently in jail in Cameron County, Texas, for three months while Minnesota officials tried to have him extradited to face state assault charges for the shooting. The shooting wounded Julio C. Sosa-Celis on Jan. 14 after a car chase and foot pursuit with his roommate. Sosa-Celis is from Venezuela.
The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed that an officer had fired a “defensive shot” after being attacked by three men with a snow shovel and broom handle. Then Sosa-Celis was hit in the thigh and taken to the hospital.
But department officials later said they were investigating “untruthful statements” made by the officers after watching video evidence.
Charges against Sosa-Solis and his roommate, Alfredo Aljorna, were dropped on Feb. 13. Both men were living in Minnesota legally at the time under Temporary Protected Status.
After Minnesota filed charges against Castro, he was arrested and jailed in Cameron County, Texas, for three months while Minnesota officials tried to have him extradited.
But a federal judge ruled that Castro was to be released on Aug. 27 because he can’t be held more than 90 days without extradition. Because he did not agree to leave the state, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, would have had to sign the extradition, which he didn’t.
This ignited a feud between Abbott and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Walz filed suit against Abbott for denying the extradition.
Since then, Castro has been indicted in federal court. It was the first time the Justice Department charged an officer for conduct that happened on duty during the immigration operations under the second Trump administration.
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