ICE Agent Charged in Minneapolis Shooting Arrested

ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)

An ICE agent charged after allegedly blindly shooting through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking one man in the leg in January, was arrested on Friday in Texas, per a press release from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

Christian Castro, 52, was taken into custody by agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and Texas Rangers, with investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension present, according to the statement.

Castro was charged earlier this month with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime stemming from a Jan. 14 incident during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.

Prosecutors allege Castro fired his weapon through the front door of a Minneapolis home after knowing that several people had just run inside. According to charging documents previously announced by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the bullet struck Julio Sosa-Celis in the leg before continuing into the wall of a child’s bedroom.

The case drew national attention after ICE Director Todd Lyons acknowledged that two federal agents involved in the incident had provided “untruthful” accounts of what occurred. In the press release on his arrest, Castro was identified as one of those agents.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, federal officials alleged that Sosa-Celis and another man had beaten Castro with a snow shovel and broom handle, forcing him to fire a defensive shot. Prosecutors now say Castro was never hit with either object — or any weapon at all — and instead fired through the home’s front door while standing alone outside.

“Today’s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,” Moriarty said in her Friday statement. “The BCA’s investigative work was instrumental in this process, and we’re grateful for their collaboration as we pursue accountability for this incident on behalf of Mr. Sosa-Celis, his family, and our community.”

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