Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty addressed the case against ICE agent Christian Castro after he made his first appearance in Minnesota state court, months after prosecutors charged him in the January shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge. Castro faces four felony second-degree assault counts and one count of falsely reporting a crime. Prosecutors say he fired through the door of an occupied Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg, and later gave investigators a false account of what happened. Surveillance video, witness statements and physical evidence contradicted Castro’s account. His appearance followed a months-long dispute over Minnesota’s effort to extradite him from Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott did not sign Minnesota’s extradition warrant before Castro was released from a Texas jail in August.
