Tensions rose in Minnespolis this winter after federal agents fatally shot U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti and shot and wounded Venzuelan immigrant Julio Sosa-Celis in three separate incidents this winter. An ICE agent was charged Monday in Sosa-Celis' shooting. File photo by Craig Lassig/EPA
May 18 (UPI) -- Minnesota prosecutors charged an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with four counts of assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime Monday in connection with the January shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant.
There is a nationwide warrant for the arrest of the agent, Christian Castro, 52, NBC News reported. Castro is accused of shooting Julio Sosa-Celis through the front door of a home "with the intent to cause fear of immediate bodily harm or death to the four adults who were just inside the door," said Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County attorney.
Castro knew the people presented no threat and the bullet struck Sosa-Celis in the leg before traveling through a closet and lodging in the wall of a child's bedroom, Moriarty said. Sosa-Celis and another Venezuelan man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, fled to the home after an earlier ICE stop.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security said in their original statement that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna attacked the agent with a broom and shovel before the shooting. Kristi Noem, then the Homeland Security chief, described it as "an attempted murder of law enforcement," The New York Times reported.
