May 18 (Reuters) – Prosecutors in Minnesota on Monday charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with assault in connection with the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis in January during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.
Christian Castro, 53, was charged with four felony counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and a misdemeanor of falsely reporting a crime, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told a press conference.
Castro was the second federal agent to be charged by Minneapolis officials in connection with Trump’s immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis, during which Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg, and two U.S. citizens were shot dead by federal agents.
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson described the charges against Castro as “unlawful” and “a political stunt.” But the official also said “lying under oath is a serious federal offense” and federal prosecutors were “actively investigating these statements.”
Two federal officers involved in the Sosa-Celis shooting appeared to have lied about events that led up to the incident, a senior ICE official said in February. That announcement came a day after U.S. prosecutors moved to drop charges against two men accused of assaulting ICE officers involved in the shooting, saying evidence in the case was “materially inconsistent with the allegations.”
The officers could face termination, as well as criminal prosecution, based on findings of the probe, the ICE spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Reuters newsroom; Editing by Donna Bryson, Rosalba O’Brien, Rod Nickel)
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