An ICE officer pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges alleging he lied to investigators about the circumstances that led to a north Minneapolis shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in January.
Christian Castro, who works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, entered the plea during a brief hearing in federal court in McAllen, Texas, after turning himself in to authorities Thursday evening. He was shackled at his wrists, waist and feet during the hearing. The judge ordered him released on a $75,000 unsecured bond with a GPS ankle monitor.
Castro was released from custody last week after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t sign an extradition warrant sought by Minnesota prosecutors before a 90-day holding period expired.
He was charged by the Department of Justice with six counts of making false statements to investigators and was taken into custody in Texas late Thursday. Castro, 52, of Texas, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count if convicted.
It’s the first Justice Department prosecution of a federal officer for actions taken during this year’s Operation Metro Surge, which brought thousands of agents to the Twin Cities and led to sweeping protests, arrests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers. The allegations in the federal indictment mirror those brought by Minnesota officials, who have separately charged Castro with assault and false reporting of a crime.
The shooting at the center of the case occurred during the Trump administration’s federal immigration surge in Minnesota, just a week after agents killed Renee Good.
Court documents allege that on Jan. 14, Castro and his partner, working as ICE deportation officers, tried to stop a vehicle driven by a then-26-year-old Venezuelan citizen, then pursued him on foot and tackled him in the front yard of a north Minneapolis duplex. Julio Sosa-Celis, then 24, who lived in the duplex, came out to help during the roughly 11-second struggle.
As the two men ran back inside and began closing the front door, Castro stood up and fired a single shot through the door, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg; the bullet continued through the entryway and lodged in a downstairs wall. Multiple people, including two children, were inside at the time.
Ultimately, surveillance video threw the accounts of Castro and other officers into doubt. Federal prosecutors had initially charged Sosa-Celis and another man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, with assault, but dropped the charges after the video evidence showed the officer may have lied about the encounter.
Cameron County Sheriff 
According to the unsealed federal indictment, Castro lied to an FBI Special Agent that night about several details of the encounter — including his own position when he fired, claiming he was on his back, and a claim that he was attacked by multiple assailants wielding a broom and a snow shovel. He also allegedly stretched the roughly 11-second struggle into an account lasting about three minutes. The indictment adds that “no person struck” Castro “with a broom as he described, and no persons wielded the broom and snow shovel as he described.”
An attorney for Castro, David Lindenmuth, urged the public not to rush to judgment without learning all the facts and to let his client “have his day in court.” Castro served in the military before becoming a federal immigration officer, Lindenmuth said after the hearing. “His life has been that of public service to our country and to our nation, either through its military or protecting its borders and enforcing its laws,” Lindenmuth said.
Castro was indicted on six counts of knowingly and willfully making materially false statements to the FBI. The Justice Department said it continues to evaluate the facts and evidence and has not ruled out additional charges. The case was investigated by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, and the FBI, with assistance from other law enforcement partners.
Castro has been suspended without pay by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since February as the investigation continues.
A federal prosecutor in Minnesota who was investigating Castro was fired, four sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. The Justice Department is now investigating whether he broke any laws in his handling of the case. ProPublica reported earlier this week that Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans told Sosa-Celis’ attorneys that Castro would be charged with making false statements, though he “objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could.”
Sources told CBS News that Evans was under investigation by the Justice Department, with the probe focusing on allegations of leaking. An automatic email response from Evans’ Justice Department account said he was on leave, and other attempts to reach him were not immediately successful. A person familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press Thursday that the civil rights probe into Castro is continuing and that additional charges could still be brought.
Sosa-Celis’ attorney, Robin Wolpert, is pressing for Castro to face stiffer charges, saying in a statement that Castro’s statements were made to “cover up the fact that he shot my client through the door of an occupied house without a self-defense justification.” “Mr. Sosa Celis wants Mr. Castro to be held fully accountable for his crimes,” Wolpert said. The ACLU of Minnesota said Sosa-Celis also plans to seek damages from the federal government.
