ICE agent wanted in Operation Metro Surge shooting of immigrant is booked into Hennepin County Jail

Jeff Day and Sarah Nelson, Star Tribune on Sep 16, 2026

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Minnesota law enforcement arrested an ICE agent Wednesday in the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge last winter, culminating months of delays and legal maneuvers in efforts to bring him to the state to answer to charges.

Christian Castro, 52, was stopped by agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in a traffic stop near his attorney’s office in Minneapolis and taken to the Hennepin County jail, where he is currently being held. Castro was scheduled to make a federal court appearance on Friday and will now make a first appearance in Hennepin County District Court on Thursday afternoon.

Hennepin County jail records show Castro was booked just after 4 p.m. Wednesday on four counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, charges leveled against him by the Hennepin County Attorney’s office in May.

Castro allegedly shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in north Minneapolis on Jan. 14, setting off a night of intense protests, and later lied about it to the FBI.

Daniel Gerdts, who is representing Castro, said his surrender was arranged and voluntary.

“The BCA agent took him into custody, as planned,” Gerdts said.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety immediately disputed that claim, saying Castro’s arrest was not planned or voluntary. Mike Ernster, the public information officer for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, said Castro was taken into custody around 2:15 p.m.

It was a full-circle moment after the BCA traveled to Texas to help with the initial arrest of Castro by members of the Texas Rangers on May 28.

That arrest set off a lengthy legal process as Minnesota law enforcement officials waited for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign extradition paperwork to send Castro to Minnesota. The state of Minnesota unsuccessfully sued Abbott in federal court to force the extradition. The paperwork was never signed as Abbott continued to investigate the charges against Castro and last month he walked out of a Texas jail a free man after 90 days in custody.

Earlier this month, Castro was indicted by a federal grand jury in Texas on six counts of making “materially false statements to the FBI” about his role in the shooting of Sosa-Celis in north Minneapolis in January during the height of Operation Metro Surge.

It remained unclear when the state would get to prosecute him, until his arrest on Wednesday.

“Mr. Castro was taken into custody by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension earlier today in Minneapolis. We’re grateful to the BCA for their collaboration throughout,” Moriarty said in a statement. “Gov. Abbott’s attempt to shield Mr. Castro from accountability has failed. We look forward to commencing our prosecution.”

The shooting of Sosa-Celis came exactly one week after Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. The gunfire sparked a chaotic night of unrest in north Minneapolis. Then-Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Sosa-Celis and his roommate, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna “began to resist and violently assault the officer” and that Castro fired a defensive shot while on the ground because he feared for his life.

The next morning, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem doubled down, denouncing the incident as an act of “attempted murder” on law enforcement. Her agency published mugshots of all three men arrested in connection with the alleged assault, casting them as “violent criminals.”

The Justice Department later moved to dismiss the charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna in a rare reversal, citing new evidence that conflicted with the initial allegations made by Castro.

In charging Castro, Moriarty alleged that a BCA investigation of the bullet trajectory along with city surveillance footage showed that Castro was standing when he fired a shot through the front door, striking Sosa-Celis.

“One of the things (the BCA) does is it put rods through the bullet holes,” Moriarty said. She added that the bullet went “in-and-out” of Sosa-Celis’ thigh and kept moving through the front door, through a closet and then into a the wall of a child’s bedroom.

“It hits and you can see it in the child’s room, bulging. It stopped in the wall,” Moriarty said. “You can see how dangerous this was.”

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