MINNEAPOLIS — The Hennepin County attorney’s office issued a nationwide arrest warrant Monday for the ICE agent who allegedly shot a Venezuelan immigrant in north Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge and then lied about the circumstances that led to the shooting.

Christian J. Castro, 52, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with four counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime. The shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis on Jan. 14 came one week after ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed Renee Good and set off another wave of intense protests amid the largest immigration enforcement action in United States history.

Sosa-Celis and his roommate, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, were initially charged with assaulting a federal officer as Trump administration officials widely publicized their mug shots and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called their alleged crime an act of “attempted murder.” The charges were later dropped when video evidence directly contradicted the story given by federal officers.

In an interview with The Minnesota Star Tribune before announcing the charges, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Castro was identified as the shooter through two sources: a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension interview at the site of the shooting and medical records from Castro’s visit to the hospital after the shooting.

“There was a very brief opportunity to do a joint investigation until that was squashed again,” Moriarty said. “In that timeframe (BCA agents) were able to be present when an ICE agent was interviewed and did identify people. We also got records from the medical facility where he went to receive treatment.”

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, former Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Sosa-Celis and Aljorna “began to resist and violently assault the officer” and that Castro — who they never identified — fired a defensive shot while on the ground because he feared for his life.

Moriarty said Castro received treatment for an abrasion on his hand and investigative evidence showed he was standing when he fired the shot.

“His narrative about what he said happened before, like he was hit with a shovel and broom and all of that, in the head multiple times, they did a thorough examination including X-rays (at the medical facility),” Moriarty said, “There’s no demonstrable trauma to his body, except for an abrasion to his left hand at the base of the thumb.”

Last month, the city of Minneapolis released surveillance footage that its cameras captured near the duplex where Sosa-Celis and Aljorna live with their partners.

Aljorna, who was making a Door Dash delivery, called home in the middle of a car chase after he fled a traffic stop by Castro and another ICE agent in an unmarked vehicle. The federal agents believed they were stopping an immigration enforcement target, but it ended up being a case of mistaken identity. One of the adults in the duplex called 911 to report what was happening and Moriarty said an emergency dispatcher turned the camera to face the duplex.

The video evidence showed Aljorna racing to the house after he crashed his car into a light pole. Castro pursued him. Sosa-Celis was waiting outside. There was a brief scramble in the yard as the three men were entangled. A shovel and broom were present near the area but there was no indication they were used as weapons.

Moriarty said a BCA investigation of the bullet trajectory along with the video showed that Castro was standing when he fired the shot through the door, striking Sosa-Celis.

“One of the things (the BCA) does is it put rods through the bullet holes,” Moriarty said, adding that the bullet went “in-and-out” of Sosa-Celis’ thigh and kept moving. “(The bullet) goes through the front door, it goes through a closet and then the child’s room, it hits and you can see it in the child’s room, bulging. It stopped in the wall. You can see the protrusion there. You can see how dangerous this was.”

After the shooting, an intense standoff took place between protesters and federal law enforcement while local police tried to ease tensions in the middle and get aid to Sosa-Celis for his injury.

ICE agents ultimately broke down the door and detained several people inside. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were charged federally. Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma, a third man who lived in a different part of the duplex and had nothing to do with the situation, was publicly identified as attacking the officer and sent to Texas. He was detained for weeks without charges. Two women in the home, who had no criminal record and were never accused of a crime, were shackled and sent to a Texas detention facility where they remained for two weeks, separated from their two small children.

After an FBI special agent testified that video surveillance footage from the street did not corroborate the account, Castro and other unidentified agents were placed on administrative leave for lying about the incident.

Moriarty said that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were in the United States legally and had temporary protected status.

This is the second case Moriarty has charged against ICE agents for their actions during Operation Metro Surge.

Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. was charged last month with two felony counts of second-degree assault in connection with pointing a weapon at motorists as he drove back to the Whipple Federal Building at the end of his shift.

Moriarty said she is sensitive to the fact that citizens might wonder why these cases have been charged but not the two most high-profile use of force incidents, the killings of Good and Alex Pretti.

“I have really a lot of empathy for everybody who has said, ‘You have the videos, why haven’t you charged?’ We get that,” Moriarty said. “From the inside, we are doing a lot of work. These are unusual cases.”

She said the BCA turned over files in the two cases her office has charged. They also had the names of the agents and other evidence that her office felt created probable cause to charge criminally.

The county attorney’s office is working with two Washington, D.C.-based law firms with expertise in federal court that are helping state prosecutors understand how these cases could play out once they are likely removed from state court to federal court. That includes the high probability that agents will move to dismiss the charges based on the supremacy clause.

If that happens, state prosecutors will argue at an evidentiary hearing in front of a federal judge who will make a determination on whether the case can move forward. Moriarty said her office is trying to make sure their cases are strong enough to withstand that hearing.

“It’s just a very unique scenario,” she said. “We obviously are trying to be very thoughtful and intentional. While I understand people really want accountability and they saw what they saw in the (Good and Pretti) videos, this is incredibly complex. The last thing we want to do is make a mistake if we feel something is appropriately charged and get dismissed out of federal court.”

She added that the BCA continues to build case files in the Good and Pretti killings, but the federal government still hasn’t provided investigators with even basic information, like the names of the federal agents who fired the shots.

“Think about how unprecedented that is,” Moriarty said. “The federal government won’t even give us the identification of the shooters.”

Earlier this year, the state of Minnesota sued the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It accused the top law enforcement agencies in the country of withholding evidence from the shootings of Good, Pretti and Sosa-Celis to protect agents in Operation Metro Surge from potential criminal charges.

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