Feds charge ICE officer with lying to investigators in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant

An ICE officer is facing federal charges that he lied to federal investigators about the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis this year.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday returned an indictment charging the officer, Christian Castro, with making false statements to the FBI about the Jan. 14 shooting that left Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis with a gunshot wound in his leg, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

A separate investigation into whether Castro should face a more serious civil rights charge in the shooting is ongoing, the source added.

The Associated Press first reported on Castro’s latest federal charges.

The federal charges come a week after Castro was released from jail in Texas despite an extradition warrant from Minnesota prosecutors seeking his transfer. He’s facing state charges in Minnesota accusing him of assault and false reporting of a crime related to the same shooting.

Federal authorities had initially accused Sosa-Celis and another man of beating an immigration officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel in a confrontation that preceded the shooting, but federal prosecutors dropped the charges they filed against the men after video evidence showed the ICE officers may…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health