ICE officer Christian Castro was arrested in Minneapolis and booked on four counts of second-degree assault and one count of false reporting, held on $200,000 bail. Surveillance footage released in April showed a roommate discarding a shovel before Castro fired into the home, contradicting Castro’s self-defense claim. Extradition disputes with Texas, a separate six-count federal indictment for false statements, and reported intervention from the Department of Justice have complicated the case. The local U.S. attorney raised objections to the change in charging strategy and was subsequently removed from the prosecution.
ICE Officer Christian Castro Arrested in Minneapolis on Multiple Assault and False-Reporting Charges
ICE Officer Arrested on Charges of Assault and Lying to Investigators
Christian Castro, a 52-year-old Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Hennepin County Jail on four counts of second-degree assault and one count of false reporting of a crime, according to jail records. He is being held on $200,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in a downtown Minneapolis courtroom on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. CST; he has not yet entered a plea.
Case Background
On Jan. 14, Castro was involved in an incident in Minneapolis after authorities say he chased a DoorDash driver, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the entryway of Aljorna’s home. Upon arriving, Castro allegedly shot the driver’s roommate, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, in the leg. Castro initially told investigators he acted in self-defense, claiming Sosa-Celis attacked him with a snow shovel.
Surveillance video released in April challenged Castro’s account: footage shows Sosa-Celis discarding the shovel early during the encounter while Castro fired shots into the home. In an unusual move, prosecutors dismissed some assault-related charges tied to Sosa-Celis and Aljorna, leaving Castro as the primary subject of state criminal proceedings.
Legal And Extradition Complications
Castro was first arrested in Texas days after a Minnesota state court issued a nationwide warrant in May. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to transfer Castro to Minnesota, arguing Castro had been reassigned to Texas by the Department of Homeland Security and therefore did not qualify as a traditional fugitive. The custody dispute left Castro in legal limbo: he was released in August after a 90-day detention limit expired and after a federal judge declined to intervene.
Separately, earlier this month a federal grand jury indicted Castro on six counts of making false statements related to the shooting, creating parallel federal proceedings. The decision to narrow state charges and pursue limited federal counts followed intervention from the Department of Justice in Washington and prompted internal objections from the local U.S. attorney’s office.
"This is being directed by the Main Justice and the U.S. Attorney," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans wrote in an internal email obtained by ProPublica. "I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn't enough."
Evans was removed from the case the day after sending that message. Castro later made an initial federal appearance in McAllen, Texas, and was released on bond. This week he returned to Minneapolis under an agreement with Minnesota authorities; state agents arrested him around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday when he arrived.
What’s Next
Castro faces both state assault and false-reporting charges and a separate federal false-statements indictment. His case remains active in multiple jurisdictions and is likely to generate further hearings and legal contention as prosecutors and defense attorneys address both the shooting itself and the accuracy of Castro’s statements to investigators.
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