MINNEAPOLIS — Christian Castro, an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was arrested in Texas on May 29, 2026, on charges filed by Hennepin County, Minnesota prosecutors stemming from a January 14, 2026, shooting in Minneapolis. Castro faces four felony counts of second-degree assault and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime.

The charges relate to an incident in which Castro shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the thigh through the front door of a Minneapolis home during a pursuit of Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna. Castro and another officer had chased Aljorna to a duplex where both Aljorna and Sosa-Celis lived. At the time, both men were legally in the U.S., according to Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.

Castro initially told the FBI that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna had repeatedly struck him with a broom and a snow shovel and that he fired his weapon as they ran toward their home. Federal authorities initially accused the two men of assaulting an officer, but a federal judge later dismissed those charges. Surveillance footage obtained by investigators, including video from a city-owned security camera, showed a person with a snow shovel retreating toward the house and tossing it into the yard before a brief scuffle near the front steps; the exact moment of the shooting was not visible.

“Today’s arrest is a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “The BCA’s investigative work was instrumental in this process and we’re grateful for their collaboration as we pursue accountability for this incident on behalf of Mr. Sosa-Celis, his family, and our community.”

Castro was located in Texas by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General and the Texas Rangers. He is the second federal agent to be criminally charged for conduct during Operation Metro Surge, a Trump administration immigration enforcement campaign that deployed approximately 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota.

ICE and the U.S. Department of Justice had previously opened an investigation into whether federal officers lied about the incident. In a statement, ICE called the Hennepin County attorney’s prosecution of Castro “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.”

Castro is expected to seek to move the case to federal court to assert immunity under the Supremacy Clause. If a judge grants that request, Hennepin County prosecutors have stated they would still pursue the case. Online court records do not list an attorney for Castro as of the time of his arrest.