Just In: ICE Officer Charged With Lying To Investigators In Lead Up to Shooting Death

(Photo by Christian Zander/NurPhoto via AP)

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has been federally charged with lying to investigators in the lead-up to the shooting of a Venezuelan man, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

The ICE officer allegedly lied to investigators before the shooting during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis this year.

Anonymous sources told the AP that “Christian Castro, the officer who authorities say shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in January, has been charged with making false statements to federal investigators.”

Castro was release from jail last week “after Texas’ governor refused to immediately sign an extradition warrant to hand him over to Minnesota authorities, who have charged him separately with assault and false reporting of a crime related to the same shooting,” the report said.

In addition, ProPublica reported Thursday that the Department of Justice declined to bring civil rights charges against Castro, much to the chagrin to the federal prosecutor handling the case.

“Federal prosecutors in Minnesota had been preparing to charge Castro with deprivation of rights under color of law for the shooting of Sosa-Celis, according to several people familiar with the case,” the report said. “Those charges are similar to the ones leveled against Minneapolis police officers accused in George Floyd’s killing and can carry hefty prison sentences.”

Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota, told lawyers for Sosa-Celis in an email that Castro would be charged “only with False Statements,” which carries a much less severe punishment than a civil rights charge.

“This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” Evans wrote. “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.”

ProPublica said Evans and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota declined to comment on the case, while an attorney for Sosa-Celis did not return a reporter’s phone calls. In addition, Castro could not be reached for comment.

This is a breaking story and has been updated.

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