A federal agent was involved in a shooting back on January 14. At the time, DHS put out a press release describing what happened.
At 6:50 PM CT on January 14, 2025, federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis for Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis who was released into the country by President Joe Biden in 2022.
Attempting to evade arrest, Sosa-Celis fled the scene in his vehicle, crashed into a parked car, and proceeded to flee on foot. The law enforcement officer pursued Sosa-Celis also on foot, caught up to him, and attempted to apprehend him when Sosa-Celis began to resist and violently assault the officer. While Sosa-Celis and law enforcement were in a struggle on the ground, two subjects came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the law enforcement officer with a snow shovel and broom handle.
As the officer was being ambushed and attacked by the two individuals, Sosa-Celis got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick. Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life. Sosa-Celis was hit in the leg. All three subjects ran back into the apartment and barricaded themselves inside. ICE successfully arrested all three illegal aliens.
Less than a week later, a federal complaint was made in court which was similar but not identical to the initial statements about what happened.
The account of the incident relayed by the F.B.I. agent largely matched what federal officials said in the immediate aftermath, as protesters were gathering at the scene and clashing with law enforcement. But it also included notable differences from that initial description and from a more detailed statement released by the Department of Homeland Security the following day.
In earlier descriptions, federal officials said that the incident started with “a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela,” but did not mention that the driver the agents were trying to stop was not who they first believed him to be. Officials have said that Mr. Aljorna and Mr. Sosa-Celis are both from Venezuela and are both in the country illegally.
In its more detailed statement on the day after the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security indicated that Mr. Sosa-Celis, not Mr. Aljorna, was the driver. The agency also used a different spelling of Mr. Aljorna’s last name. That statement accused a third man, also from Venezuela and also in the country illegally, of being involved in the incident. While the affidavit says that the agent believed a third man assaulted him with a shovel, only Mr. Aljorna and Mr. Sosa-Celis are accused by name in the complaint.
And that brings us to the bad news today, which is that the two agents involved have now been suspended and are under investigation for potentially lying about what happened.
Two immigration officers have been suspended and are facing a criminal investigation into whether they lied under oath about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis last month.
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that a recent review of video evidence revealed that the officers “appear to have made untruthful statements” in sworn testimony given as part of a case charging two men — including the shooting victim, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis — with attacking immigration agents.
The suspension comes one day after a Minnesota prosecutor asked a judge to drop the charges against Mr. Sosa-Celis on the grounds that the evidence did not support the charges.
The suspensions and dismissal followed an extraordinary court filing on Thursday, in which Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor, Daniel N. Rosen, asked a judge to dismiss charges against the man who was wounded in that shooting, as well as another man who had been accused of attacking the agent who opened fire.
Mr. Rosen wrote that “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations” that federal officials made in a charging document and in courtroom testimony.
By Friday, the case had been dismissed with prejudice, meaning the men cannot be recharged. The two agents had been suspended and were being investigated, Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.
“Video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Mr. Lyons said. “Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation.”
The criminal complaint mentioned above, the one submitted a week after the incident, was submitted by an FBI agent. So it sounds like these two could be facing felony charges for lying to the FBI. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin didn't rule it out. She told the Post, "Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution."
These chuckleheads definitely need to be fired. The issue of ICE's presence in Minneapolis was already red hot because of the shooting of Renee Good and then they decided to shoot someone and lie about it? Presumably, the fact that they are lying has been confirmed by their own video cams, but so far no one has explained exactly what did happen. Did they forget about their own cameras? How did they think they were going to get away with this?
Fortunately in this case no one was killed but the whole story is going to confirm the worst for a lot of people who already thought ICE agents were acting like cowboys. That's not fair to the hundreds of agents who were doing their jobs the right way, but it seems pretty clear these guys were not which only helps the anti-ICE activists.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Hot Air's conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member