Did an ICE agent spin up a wild story after shooting a Venezuelan national in Minnesota early this year? Or has he been scapegoated by a state filled with “rage” over immigration law enforcement in general?
Both federal and Hennepin County prosecutors have formally charged Christian Castro, 52, for allegedly lying to investigators, but one of his attorneys, David Lindenmuth, told Blaze News that his client has been unfairly targeted by “rabid” officials looking for someone to blame for other controversies associated with Operation Metro Surge.
‘He was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled. … There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.’
“They went through some pretty serious things up there with the federal law enforcement being sent up there. There’s a couple of high-profile deaths,” Lindenmuth said. “And because of that, I think that what happened, to be quite honest … [is] Mr. Castro is basically the one that they chose to prosecute.”
Lindenmuth did not name names regarding the “high-profile deaths,” but the incident involving Castro occurred just one week after Renee Good was fatally shot on January 7.
On January 14, the Department of Homeland Security reported that an unnamed federal immigration officer had “fired a defensive shot to defend his life” during an immigration operation in Minnesota.
The officer had sustained a brutal attack, during which three individuals “ambushed” him and struck him with a “broom handle” and a “snow shovel,” the DHS claimed on January 14.
Now, however, the Department of Justice claims the officer made the whole thing up. On September 2, a federal grand jury indicted Castro on six counts of making a materially false statement.
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The federal indictment claims that on January 14, Castro told the FBI that while he was attempting to arrest one man, a second “unknown man grabbed a red broom off the front porch,” “a third unknown man came out of the house, grabbed a black snow shovel,” and all three ganged up on him.
Castro then claimed that “he tried to block strikes from the broom to his face with his left hand and reached for his gun,” according to the indictment. The men then bolted for a nearby residence, and Castro “lifted his back off the ground and fired one round from his gun in the general direction of the men at the same time they started running.”
Castro estimated to the FBI that he struggled on the ground with the original subject, identified as “A.A.,” for “approximately three minutes,” the indictment said.
According to federal prosecutors, none of Castro’s claims are true. Instead, prosecutors claim: No one struck Castro with a broom or a snow shovel at that time; there was no third person involved; Castro was standing when he shot through the front door of the duplex residence, where the two men had already hidden themselves; and the scuffle on the ground lasted only 11 seconds.
A probable cause statement from Hennepin County indicated that, following a 911 call, Minneapolis police took “remote-control of a city camera” and angled it at the residence in time to capture much of the incident.
Castro’s bullet struck one subject, identified as Julio Sosa-Celis in news reports but referred to as “J.S.-C.” in the federal indictment. Sosa-Celis was wounded in the leg but has recovered from his injury.
The indictment describes J.S.-C. as a 24-year-old “citizen of Venezuela” who resided in the duplex.
The probable cause statement claimed that at the time of the shooting, Sosa-Celis and A.A. “were residing in Minnesota lawfully, having been granted ‘Temporary Protected Status’ by the United States Department of Homeland Security.”
Sosa-Celis was arrested shortly after the incident, but all charges against him have since been dropped.
Though Lindenmuth admits that Castro “fired his weapon” that fateful night, Lindenmuth insisted that Castro is “innocent” and “had no intent to lie to federal agents.”
“The federal government has to prove that Mr. Castro lied to them, and then the state government has to prove that he actually committed a crime,” he explained to Blaze News. “The facts as I understand them is that he was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled, right? They fled. Then they fled on foot. There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.”
In the county probable cause statement, the original subject of the operation — whom the federal indictment referred to as “A.A.” — admitted to investigators on January 14 that he fled from the agents in his vehicle because “he feared for his life” and led them on a 25-minute chase. Once he arrived at his residence, he made a run for the front door but “slipped on the ice” and was then “tackled” by the ICE agent.
Video of the incident also shows that prior to the shooting, Sosa-Celis “stepped onto the front lawn of the home holding a snow shovel,” the probable cause statement indicated.
Castro was originally indicted by the Hennepin County district attorney back in May on four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime.
He was arrested following the federal indictment and booked into Hennepin County Jail. Jail records show only the state charges.
Castro pled not guilty to the federal charges on Friday. He was released from jail after posting a $200,000 bond.
Castro is scheduled to appear in court again for the state charges on November 3. The DHS has suspended him without pay, Lindenmuth confirmed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, the DHS, the Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office, and the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (DFL) did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.
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Lindenmuth characterized the charges as a miscarriage of justice against a devoted American patriot who has been turned into a “political pawn” by bad actors.
“Mr. Castro was a 13-year veteran in the Army, a combat veteran deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he received a 100% disability rating as a result of his service for 70% for PTSD, 30% for traumatic brain injury, where he was hit by the last wave of a suicide bomber on the American embassy over there. And so this is a person who was injured serving his country,” Lindenmuth claimed, adding that Castro has also spent a decade as an immigration officer.
“He has given his life to serving this country, and he’s not [been given] the benefit of the protections of the presumption of innocence. … Basically he’s being tried out in public by the state of Minnesota, and it’s sad to see.
“That’s not how we’re supposed to operate.”
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Department of homeland security, Minnesota, Department of justice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Politics
