How Hennepin County unwound an ICE agent's web of lies
Christian Castro is now the subject of a nationwide arrest warrant.
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During the Trump administration’s siege of Minnesota, federal agents behaved with the sort of impunity that comes from the assurance there will never be any consequences for their violent, criminal actions.
While it is true that it is very difficult for states to prosecute federal law enforcement officers, it isn’t impossible. Now, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Christian Castro, who shot a Venezuelan immigrant through a closed door and then spun a yarn about how he was in fear for his life, is going to get a chance to find out just how far his luck will stretch.
On Monday, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty issued a nationwide warrant for Castro’s arrest on four counts of felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime. It turns out that it is a bad idea to lie at great length about what happened when you were on camera pretty much the whole time.
The charges stem from a January 14 incident where Castro and another ICE agent chased Alfredo Aljorna through Minneapolis to his home on the North Side.
The cover story collapses
The story Castro told, and the story that appeared in an FBI agent’s affidavit supporting the charges, was one of being attacked by multiple men in a dark yard, his assailants hitting him with brooms and shovels, a grueling fight with Aljorna that lasted at least three minutes, with Aljorna’s housemate Julio Sosa-Celis joining in and hitting him as well.
According to Castro’s initial story, Aljorna and Sosa-Celis kept striking him even as he was defenseless on the ground. But Castro struggled mightily to draw his gun because he feared for his safety, and drawing his pistol is what caused the men to stop attacking him and run away. He shot in their direction before they got inside the house.
This version of events would not have come under such scrutiny had the federal government not gotten greedy and charged Aljorna and Sosa-Celis with assaulting a federal law enforcement officer who was performing their official duties.
And that’s where things started to fall apart.
FBI agent Timothy Schanz’s affidavit was basically stenography for Castro’s tale. It described how Castro was “exhausted, alone, on the ground, and in fear of his safety” and how the whole scene became so terrifying that federal agents did not execute a full search warrant that night, but somehow were still able to tell the FBI they could not find a shell casing or bullet hole in the house.
Schanz’s affidavit also explained that FBI agents had “preliminarily reviewed” CCTV video provided by the Minneapolis Police Department, but “due to the distance, coverage, and panning changes of the camera, only certain portions, and not the entirety of the incident, were captured.” The video “captured the three individuals in what appeared to be a physical altercation in the front yard,” and later “one individual is seen laying on the ground with two people running toward the house that was out of the frame.”
Nearly a month after the shooting, the United States Attorney for Minnesota filed a motion to dismiss the complaint against Aljorna and Sosa-Celis with prejudice, meaning the government could never refile charges. The only explanation was that “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the Complaint Affidavit as well as the preliminary hearing testimony.”
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons used this to try to make his agency look like they actually respect the rule of law, saying two ICE officers had been placed on leave after a review of video evidence showed they made “untruthful statements” and that “lying under oath is a serious federal offense.” (You don’t say!)
Though the CCTV video was available within hours of the shooting, federal prosecutors apparently did not review it before filing charges. Instead, they waited three weeks. This delay would be decidedly odd in any circumstances, but especially here, where the government said an FBI agent had “preliminarily reviewed” the video, and it showed, at least in part, the altercation between Castro and the two men.
Both ICE and the DOJ likely believed that dropping the charges against Aljorna and Sosa-Celis, combined with Lyons talking tough about what trouble the agents would be in if they lied, would put this whole thing to rest. But then, in early April, the Minneapolis Police Department released the video, which was a problem for the federal government for three reasons.
First, the video captured far more of the incident than Schanz’s affidavit described. Second, the video doesn’t even remotely line up with the story the government told. Third, the video is from official Minneapolis CCTV cameras and was turned over by the city’s police department, so it can’t be dismissed as unreliable bystander footage.
This unlikely pileup of conditions may have been what left the door open for the state to prosecute Castro. The video allowed Hennepin County to show what really happened and to highlight where Castro lied. The video also meant the state didn’t need to base the charges solely on statements by Aljorna and Sosa-Celis that contradicted Castro’s account. Thanks to that video evidence, the state could sidestep assertions that Castro, as a “law enforcement officer,” should be considered more credible than his victims.
Because of this, Hennepin County’s warrant details Castro’s actions down to the second, and you can see just how much Castro was lying.
Sosa-Celis appears onscreen at 6:47 pm, standing in the yard and holding a snow shovel. Castro and Aljorna’s vehicles arrive and stop roughly 100 feet away at 6:48:36. Nine seconds later, Aljorna runs out of his vehicle, pursued by Castro, and at 6:48:50, Sosa-Celis throws the shovel on the ground and never picks it back up. Aljorna reaches his front door at 6:48:52, but slips. Castro catches up to him at 6:48:55 and jumps on top of him, struggling with Aljorna for two seconds before rolling off of him and onto the ground at 6:48:57. At 6:49:01, Sosa-Celis tries to separate Aljorna from Castro and help get Aljorna up. Both men run for the house at 6:49:04, and by 6:49:08, Castro is off the ground as well.
One second later, Castro’s arms are straight out, pointing at the house’s front door, which the state charges note are “consistent with Defendant firing a gun at the front door of the home.”
Minneapolis police received a ShotSpotter report, a gunshot detection system used in Minneapolis and nationwide. It detected a single round fired in front of the house at exactly 6:49:09 pm.
So, a total of 24 seconds elapsed between Castro getting out of his car and shooting Sosa-Celis. (Thankfully, his injuries were relatively minor.) The struggle, such as it was, lasted at most nine seconds, from when Castro tackled Aljorna to when both Aljorna and Sosa-Celis started running for the house. No one hit Castro with a broom, a shovel, or anything else. Castro was not battered and defenseless on the ground, nor did he fight with anyone for three minutes. He didn’t struggle to pull his gun while on the ground being attacked. He didn’t shoot in the vicinity of Aljorna and Sosa-Celis, uncertain if he hit them. He got up, squared into a shooting stance, and shot through the front door, where there were four adults and two children inside.
And that whole part where the FBI affidavit said that “law enforcement on scene were unable to locate any shell casing or bullet impact” at the house? It’s not clear if that is a lie or if federal law enforcement agents are just that bad at their jobs. Hennepin County’s warrant notes that forensic scientists from Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found a 9mm caliber shell casing outside the entrance of the house and a single bullet hole in the front door.
Hennepin County’s warrant also shows that Castro didn’t just lie to the FBI — he lied to a whole bunch of people. First, he told other ICE agents who arrived on the scene after he shot Sosa-Celis his fabrications about two people hitting him with a broom and shovel even when he was on the ground. Then, he did something very odd.
The ostensibly terrified, exhausted, battered Castro didn’t seek medical care nearby. Instead, BCA learned that Castro went to the Cambridge Medical Center, arriving by private car at 8:44 pm.
Now, if you don’t live in Minnesota, you might not understand how ridiculous this is. The shooting happened in North Minneapolis, and there are two Level 1 trauma center hospitals within four miles. Cambridge Medical Center is a small regional combined clinic and hospital roughly one-quarter the size … and it’s 45 miles away.
While there, Castro told the story of how he was trying to detain a suspect, but then other people came, and he was beaten with a broom and hit twice in the head with a shovel, but he blocked some blows by covering his head. Medical records showed that his only injury was an abrasion at the base of his thumb. The hospital cleaned the abrasion and discharged him.
So, to recap: Castro lied to the FBI. He lied to his fellow ICE agents. He lied to medical personnel. His lies cast him as the victim rather than the aggressor and resulted in Aljorna and Sosa-Celis being charged with a crime he knew they didn’t commit.
Minnesota steps into the breach
If Castro weren’t a federal agent, this would be a slam dunk, but federal agents enjoy substantial protection from state prosecution. Moriarty understands this, but federal protection isn’t absolute. (If you want a concise, high-level, accessible explanation of when and how state charges can stick, Moriarty has a YouTube video for you!)
As a federal employee, Castro can try to remove this to federal court. However, even if he succeeds, he would still be tried by Hennepin County, and the federal judge has to apply Minnesota law. Once in federal court, Castro could move to dismiss the charges, and he would succeed if he could show that (1) he was doing something he was authorized to do by United States law and (2) he did no more than what was “necessary and proper.”
The absurd deference and immunity afforded law enforcement might protect Castro from the assault charges if a judge wants to buy that he was performing an authorized act when he shot through the door. But there’s no world where it was proper for Castro to build a web of lies to protect himself and ensure that Aljorna and Sosa-Celis were falsely charged. And if there weren’t a video, he’d likely have succeeded.
The false report of a crime charge is a misdemeanor, and convicting Castro under that is undoubtedly less satisfying than it would be to see him convicted of multiple felony counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. But that false report is, arguably, just as monstrous as shooting Sosa-Celis through the door. If the state can manage to convict an ICE agent for that, it’s huge. It would put a chink in the armor that ICE agents have been able to wrap themselves in. It would also show that the federal government can’t protect these thugs forever.
Oh, and one more thing: even if Castro gets this removed to federal court, any conviction is still under Minnesota state law. And guess what? No pardons for that. Good luck, dude. You’re probably going to need it.
That’s it for today
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Twenty-four seconds from car door to gunshot, and Castro spent the following weeks turning nine of them into a three-minute beating. He wasn’t defending himself; he was casting himself.
The video didn’t just contradict his story, it convicted his instinct to lie when he assumed no one was watching.
ICE doesn’t hire men who fear for their lives. It hires men who shoot first….punishment-first isn’t the malfunction, it’s the job description.
Johan
I will celebrate the day that this ICE agent is found guilty of the crimes of which they are being charged- it is past time for the employees of this agency to be held accountable for their violent treatment of individuals whose crimes are for the most part that of trying to live a peaceful life away from the violence many suffered in their country of origin. And many of the people this agency rounded up and disappeared were taken as they were adhering to the law and appearing for mandatory meetings at courthouses. It is time to expose this agency for the lawlessness of the agents as well as the lies told to the media by not only the director of ICE but by our sitting president. Take out the trash that is this corrupt administration!