New surveillance footage has emerged contradicting ICE’s account of a brutal shooting incident in Minneapolis.
Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg by a federal agent in January. DHS subsequently claimed the agent had been violently attacked by Sosa-Celis and his cousin, Alfredo A. Aljorna, and that the officer feared “for his life and safety.”
Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called the Jan. 14 incident an “attempted murder of federal law enforcement” and that the officer “was ambushed and attacked by three individuals who beat him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms” and fired “a defensive shot.”
The Justice Department dropped charges against the men in February, with two ICE agents placed on administrative leave. ICE acting director Todd Lyons confirmed that “video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements” in a statement at the time.
The altercation, which followed the fatal shooting of citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis, also led to major protests on the streets, where crowds had to be dispersed using chemical irritants.
Now, new video released by the City of Minneapolis on Monday appears to contradict claims that the ICE agent was threatened with a shovel or broom handle.
The nine-minute video, filmed on a city-owned camera at a nearby intersection, shows Sosa-Celis standing in front of a home in North Minneapolis, holding what appears to be a shovel on a snow-covered street.
In the darkly-lit video, which was also shared by Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, Aljorna gets out of a car, falls on the ground, and is tackled by an ICE agent who jumps on him.
Aljorna had been spotted by agents after they ran a check on the car he was driving, which was registered to another person, according to the Times’ report.
Sosa-Celis is seen trying to wrestle Aljorna out of the agent’s grip. The new surveillance footage shows the snow shovel had been thrown on the pavement at the time the three men wrestle for around 12 seconds, and it was not used as a weapon, contradicting DHS and Noem’s accounts.
Both men then head to run inside and the ICE agent fired a shot that hit Sosa-Celis. The 24-year-old suffered a wound to his right thigh and survived.
The federal government had access to the video soon after Sosa-Celis was shot, Minneapolis police told The New York Times. However prosecutors did not watch the surveillance footage until almost three weeks after charges were filed against the two members, an official source told the Times. Instead, they relied on the ICE agent’s statement and an FBI agent’s affidavit describing the footage.
“Bare due diligence would have shown that the agents were lying,” Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis is quoted as saying by the Times, after seeing the new footage for the first time.
In a statement to CNN on Monday, Frey said the new surveillance video “makes it crystal clear that, just like in other situations during Operation Metro Surge, the federal government’s account of what happened simply does not match the facts.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the new surveillance footage undermined the Trump administration’s version of events.
“There is a snow shovel there, but it doesn’t appear it ever gets used as a weapon,” he told the Times. “There is no bludgeoning or anything.”
O’Hara added “it sounds like an unarmed person got shot running away.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Frey and a rep for Noem for comment.
The DHS sent February’s statement from Lyons to the Daily Beast on Monday, which said the officers, who have not been named, “may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution” after the investigation into the incident is finished. The DHS did not reply to requests about the status of the investigation.
The shooting occurred during Operation Metro Surge, where DHS deployed ICE agents to conduct raids in Minneapolis, where over 4,000 undocumented immigrants were arrested.
President Donald Trump fired Noem last month after increasing criticism over her leadership and the voter backlash to fatal ICE raids.
Trump claimed Noem had “served us well” and would take up a role he called the “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas.”
Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were jailed in Minnesota and their partners were sent to an ICE detention center outside El Paso, before judges ordered they be allowed to return to Minneapolis. They continue to fight the Trump administration’s attempt to deport them.
The Daily Beast has contacted attorneys for Sosa-Celis and Aljorna for comment.
