Todd Lyons, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accused two federal agents of lying under oath regarding the mid-January shooting of a Venezuelan national in Minneapolis.
The two officers have been placed on administrative leave and an internal investigation is underway, Lyons said in his statement.
“Video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements. Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation. Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” Lyons said. “The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law. … Violations of this sacred sworn oath will not be tolerated.”
The announcement comes a day after the Department of Justice abruptly dropped charges against Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who had been federally charged with assaulting ICE officers. The filing entered by U.S. Attorney in Minnesota Daniel Rosen cited “newly discovered evidence” that was “materially inconsistent” with the charges against them.
An ICE officer shot Sosa-Celis in the leg on Jan. 14 near North Sixth Street and North 24th Avenue, inciting anger in a city where just a week before, an agent had shot and killed Renee Good.
In the hours after the shooting of Sosa-Celis, two dueling narratives emerged. Cellphone video shared by Democratic state Sen. Erin Maye Quade shows a woman calling 911 shortly after the shooting. The woman says her husband was chased by ICE agents before he reached his home, and was shot in front of his family.
The Department of Homeland Security, however, said that Sosa-Celis fled and crashed into a parked car, and then tried to flee on foot.
When an officer caught up to him, Sosa-Celis “began to resist and violently assault the officer,” the original statement says. According to DHS, two other men then came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the officer with a snow shovel and broom handle. The officer feared for his life, the DHS said, and “fired a defensive shot” at Sosa-Celis, who was hit in the leg.
The government’s account of the shooting has since changed; in an affidavit to support charges against Aljorna and Sosa-Celis, the FBI said that Aljorna — not Sosa-Celis — had fled the scene in a car. It goes on to say that Sosa-Celis was the one who initially struck the ICE officer with a broom stick while he tried to arrest Aljorna.
The FBI alleged that Aljorna then broke free and started attacking the ICE officer with the same broomstick. The affidavit also says that the officer “had poor or sporadic lighting” and “had difficulty seeing the assailants.”
Attorney Frederick Goetz, who represents Aljorna, said, “It is my understanding that the video surveillance evidence that captured the incident was materially inconsistent with the federal agent’s claims of what happened; i.e. the agent’s claims of being assaulted were not backed up by the video evidence.”
Sosa-Celis’ attorney Robin Wolpert said “I am glad to see that ICE and the DOJ are publicly acknowledging and investigating untruthful statements by the two ICE officers.”
Lyons said that after ICE’s internal investigation, the two officers could face termination of employment.
