A Federal Indictment Charges an ICE Officer With Lying About a Shooting That DHS Eagerly Defended
Reason · RC · trust 60/100
Christian Castro (Cameron County Sheriff's Office/Brphoto/Dreamstime) After Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Christian Castro shot Julio C. Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis on January 14, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) portrayed that use of potentially lethal force as fully justified. "Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals," it said in a press release the next day, Castro "fired a defensive shot to defend his life," striking Sosa-Celis in the leg.
As the DHS told it, Castro "attempted to apprehend" Sosa-Celis, "a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela," who "began to resist and violently assault the officer." Castro was on the ground, wrestling with Sosa-Celis, when two other men "came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle." Then Sosa-Celis "got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick." Kristi Noem, then the DHS secretary, described "an attempted murder of federal law enforcement" in which Castro "was ambushed and attacked by three individuals who beat him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms ."
According to an indictment that a federal grand jury approved on Wednesday, none of that was true: Castro made the whole thing up. Compounding Castro's dishonesty, the DHS uncritically accepted his version of events, and Noem went further, embellishing his story by multiplying the number of imaginary weapons that his supposed assailants allegedly used to attack him.
That is par for the course at the DHS, which has a history of reflexively defending its employees, rushing to judgment before all the relevant facts are known. This is by no means the only case in which the government's initial account of a DHS shooting has unraveled in the face of contrary evidence. But it is unusual in one respect: The government ultimately admitted that its account was based entirely on a DHS employee's self-serving lies.
What actually happened that day? According to the DHS press release, "federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis for Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis," who "fled the scene in his vehicle, crashed into a parked car, and proceeded to flee on foot." But the very next day, FBI agent Timothy Schanz told a different story in an affidavit supporting federal charges against Sosa-Celis and Alfredo A. Aljorna, who shared a duplex apartment with Sosa-Celis and supposedly joined him in assaulting Castro.
According to Schanz, Castro and another ICE officer spotted "a silver/grey Ford Focus" with a license plate registered to Joffre Barrera. Records indicated that Barrera "was illegally in the United States." The officers assumed the man driving the car, Aljorna, was Barrera, even though Aljorna was 50 pounds heavier, five inches taller, and about a decade older. In any event, it was Aljorna, not Sosa-Celis, who "fled the scene" when ICE tried to pull him over and "hit a light pole" (as opposed to "a parked car") on North 24th Avenue after a car chase that lasted "15 to 20 minutes." Then Aljorna ran toward his home.
As Castro chased Aljorna, Schanz said, he "saw a separate Hispanic male," later identified as Sosa-Celis, "standing on the porch" of the duplex. After Aljorna "slipped and fell," Castro caught up with him and "began tussling with him on the ground." Then Sosa-Celis grabbed "a red-handled broom" and "began hitting" Castro with it "in the face," saying "something to the effect of, 'Let him go.'" Castro saw "a third Hispanic male approach with a snow shovel." That man "began striking" Castro with the shovel. When Aljorna "wiggled out of his shirt or sweater and freed himself" from Castro's grip, the ICE officer called out for help from his partner but realized he was not there.
Castro, who estimated that he "had been fighting/tussling" with Aljorna for three minutes, "was exhausted, alone, on the ground, and in fear of his safety," Schanz said. Sosa-Celis "passed the broom" to Aljorna, who "attempted to hit" Castro "in the face or head." Castro, who "was struck repeatedly by the broom," "used his left hand to block a strike," which "caused a cut or gash to the palm of his left hand." While "blocking strikes with his left hand," Castro "struggled to draw his service pistol with his right hand and pointed it in the direction of his assailants."
When the men saw Castro "draw his pistol," Schanz said, they "dropped the broom and the snow shovel" and "began to run" toward the duplex where they lived. Castro "simultaneously fired one round from his service pistol towards the vicinity of the assailants," who "ran inside" the building and "closed the front door."
If three men participated in the alleged attack on Castro, why were only two charged? Schanz did not say. But as he could have discovered if he had bothered to investigate Castro's claims, the ICE officer's account was inconsistent with video and physical evidence. Surveillance camera footage of the incident did not show any assault with a broom or a snow shovel. Nor did it document a prolonged violent struggle like the one that Castro described.
The struggle with Aljorno lasted about 12 seconds, and Castro "was not hit by a shovel or a broom," Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty would later note . "In fact, he was not hit at all." After Aljorna and Sosa-Celis escaped into their home, she added, they "presented absolutely no threat to him or anyone else." And contrary to what Castro claimed, that was when he fired his gun, as a bullet hole through the front door showed.
After charging Aljorna and Sosa-Celis with assault and various other felonies, federal prosecutors belatedly noticed the problems with Castro's story. "Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations" against Aljorna and Sosa-Celis, Daniel N. Rosen, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, told U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson on February 12,…
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