Full Press Conference — HCAO files charges against ICE agent accused of shooting man in Minneapolis

[0:05] Thank you all for being here. [0:07] I'm Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. [0:10] Today, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office [0:12] filed charges against Christian Castro, an Immigration [0:16] and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agent, [0:20] stemming from the shooting of Julio Sosa-Solis [0:23] in North Minneapolis on January 14. [0:26] He is being charged with four counts of assault [0:30] in the second degree and one count of falsely reporting [0:33] a crime. [0:35] The four counts of assault are a result of Mr. Castro [0:39] shooting through the front door of a residence [0:42] with the intent to cause fear of immediate bodily harm or death [0:46] to the four adults who were just inside the door. [0:50] These charges have activated a nationwide warrant for his arrest. [0:55] Here is a copy of the complaint. [1:02] Mr. Castro fired his service weapon at the front door [1:06] of the home knowing there were people who had just run inside [1:09] that presented absolutely no threat to him or anyone else. [1:13] The bullet punched through the front door and struck Mr. Sosa-Solis's leg [1:18] before traveling through a closet and lodging in the wall of a child's bedroom. [1:23] Mr. Castro was not under any physical threat when he fired his weapon or even beforehand. [1:30] He was not hit by a shovel or a broom. [1:33] In fact, he was not hit at all. [1:36] His own boss, ICE director Todd Lyons, acknowledged that two ICE agents lied in the aftermath of this incident. [1:45] Mr. Castro was one of them. [1:47] The hastily charged federal case against Mr. Sosa-Solis and Mr. Alhorna were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled. [1:58] Crimes that the federal government alleged they committed never occurred. [2:04] Yet, the Department of Homeland Security press release containing those lies and making accusations of attempted murder [2:11] against individuals at whom Mr. Castro shot still remains on its website today. [2:17] This violence and his lies had a significant impact both on our community broadly and specifically on Mr. Sosa-Solis and Mr. Alhorna. [2:29] A violent crime did occur that night, but it was Mr. Castro who committed it. [2:36] He shot through the door of a home with many people, including children, inside, while fortunately missing several others. [2:44] His bullet did struck Mr. Sosa-Solis in the thigh. [2:48] Mr. Castro is an ICE agent, but his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota. [2:59] I've said it many times and I'll say it again. [3:03] There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal officers who commit crimes in this state or any other. [3:12] So what's next? [3:14] We do expect his defense to attempt to remove the case to federal court. [3:19] Should a judge grant that motion, it would still be prosecuted by our attorneys. [3:26] Should it end in a conviction, Mr. Castro will be ineligible for a presidential pardon. [3:33] While Minneapolis was being occupied by federal agents, Mr. Sosa-Solis, who was lawfully here in our community, was shot by an ICE agent who fired at him after he ran into his home, putting numerous lives at risk. [3:50] We will not rest in our pursuit of accountability for unlawful actions committed by federal agents in Minnesota. [3:59] We, along with our partners at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, have thoroughly investigated this incident. [4:09] We followed the facts, collected and preserved evidence, and have analyzed the law thoroughly. [4:15] Those actions have led us to today's decision. [4:19] These are appropriate charges. [4:22] And we are fully prepared for what comes next. [4:25] Thank you. [4:26] Now I will turn it over to Attorney General Ellison, and then we'll take questions. [4:30] Well, first of all, let me thank you, County Attorney Moriarty, on excellent work. [4:39] Also, let me thank the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension who worked very hard on this. [4:45] Let me thank all of the staff members who have worked really hard on this and have done all they can to bring the most accurate and well-researched and well-investigated case forward that they could. [4:57] All of them have done well by the people of the State of Minnesota. [5:01] Now, the State of Minnesota, and every county in the State of Minnesota, has a duty, obligation, and certainly a right to provide public safety. [5:11] And what does that mean? [5:12] It means investigating offenses, violations of law, and it means holding people accountable when those laws are violated through the prosecutorial process. [5:21] This is entirely appropriate. [5:23] It's the right thing to do. [5:25] And American jurisprudence has recognized for a long time that there is no absolute immunity, as the county attorney said, when a federal agent violates the criminal laws of a state. [5:38] And so, today, this is an expression of that accountability, our effort to bring forward meaningful accountability and protection for the people of this state. [5:49] I continue to hope that the federal government will work with us to make sure that the law is followed and that it is vindicated. [5:58] And I'll continue to hold that hope out because I believe in the best of us. [6:04] But I will say that at this moment, we're still hoping for that. [6:09] And right there, I'll just say thank you, and that's all we want to say. [6:14] Ernesto. [6:15] Mary, thanks for your time and this information. [6:19] Can you walk us through how your office and your team was able to discern the identity of the agent? [6:26] This has been a big stumbling block all along. [6:30] And then, now that he has been charged, what follows in terms of getting him into custody? [6:36] I've noticed that the agent your office charged back in April is still a fugitive. [6:41] Do you expect that there will be some mechanism to get him arrested and arraigned? [6:47] So, I'll answer the second question first, which is what mechanism might be out there to get Mr. Castro into custody or at least here to start the proceedings. [6:56] You've noticed that Mr. Morgan, the ICE agent who we charged earlier, is still not in custody. [7:02] What I can say about Mr. Morgan's case is that we have made substantial progress in getting him here to start that process. [7:10] Your first question was about how did we identify Mr. Castro. [7:14] I would say that the BCA did a tremendous job of getting to the scene very quickly, where they heard FBI agents identifying this agent. [7:25] They also did some follow-up, which allowed us to get corroboration of the agent's name. [7:30] Did you have any cooperation whatsoever from anybody at the federal level with this investigation? [7:36] We did not have cooperation of anyone at the federal government to give us any of the evidence that we have. [7:43] We still don't have any evidence that they might have collected. [7:46] Do you have an update on the immigration status? [7:49] Do you know that there was attempts to deport Mr. Sosa-Solis and the cooperating witnesses, the women, as well as the man that they were chasing on the way there? [8:00] Where does all that stand? [8:02] The question was about, apparently, the federal government tried to deport Mr. Sosa-Solis and the women that were involved and Mr. El Horno. [8:10] What I want to say very clearly is that they were here lawfully. [8:16] They were here lawfully. [8:18] And this was a case of mistaken identity. [8:22] ICE chased Mr. El Horno when he was working for DoorDash. [8:26] He was not the person that they thought he was, and I'm just going to emphasize again, they were both here lawfully. [8:33] Do you have any idea where this agent is right now, and how confident are you that he'll cooperate and he'll ultimately be able to? [8:41] The question is, do we have any idea where the ICE agent is right now? [8:46] No. [8:47] There are also mechanisms out there to find him, and I feel pretty confident that we will get him in here to start this process. [8:56] Was he one of the local, was he from the Twin Cities area, or was he somebody who's working here temporarily? [9:04] Our best information is that he was not from the local area. [9:08] The video that proved that they were lying, it was kind of like a rare time that the federal authorities, Todd Lyons, admitted wrongdoing by publicly stating that they had lied. [9:24] Can you speak to the importance of the video that captured what went on in the front yard? [9:29] Well, the question was about the video of the front yard. [9:33] So when various people, including the people in the house, called 911, the Minneapolis police were able, there was a camera there on that corner, and they were able to turn the camera to capture what happened in the front yard. [9:47] I think it was extremely important. [9:49] Any time that you have video which contradicts what an ICE agent or, frankly, anybody says, that's very compelling evidence. [9:57] Will Mr. Sosa-Solis be able to testify at this trial? [10:01] Do you know where he is? [10:03] And if so, in the trial, would his testimony be critical for your case as the prosecution? [10:13] The question is about Mr. Sosa-Solis. [10:16] Would he be able to testify? [10:17] How critical is his testimony? [10:19] I'll only say that we have had extensive contact with him, as has the BCA, and I'll just leave it at that. [10:25] Jeff, do you have a question? [10:26] One of the things that I thought about this case was that not only what happened to Mr. Sosa-Solis, Mr. LaGiorna, but that another man was sent to Texas, never charged in hell for a number of weeks. [10:38] The partners were also sent to Texas, I believe, in hell for a number of weeks. [10:43] Can you just talk about, from a law enforcement perspective, some of these federal actions that maybe don't rise to the level of criminal charges but are tied into the behavior that was seen by Minnesotans over the course of Operation Metro Surgeon? [10:57] I don't know, just how you kind of view that element, even if it's not criminal, but as just part of the things that people here went through. [11:05] The question was about some of the behavior that many of us, our community, witnessed and actually experienced during Operation Metro Surgeon. [11:15] Much of it didn't rise to the level of a criminal offense, but it was still abhorrent conduct which frightened community members. [11:24] This is one of the reasons why we created the Transparency and Accountability Project, to allow community members to give us information, videos, so that we could interview them and tell their stories. [11:38] I think some of what we're getting is not criminal in nature. [11:42] I am also aware that there was some documentation by the Human Rights Watch, and I think we'll hear much more about their report coming up here, and I think Human Rights Watch and other groups like the ACLU and the Attorney General. [11:57] And I can let the Attorney General speak to that, but filing lawsuits about violations of people's rights that might not rise to the level of criminal activity, but just documenting. [12:08] Documenting what happened here to people so that people feel that someone noticed. [12:14] I mean, one of our investigators was interviewing a person as part of our TAP project, and I happened to run into that woman who burst into tears just at the idea that someone cared about what happened to her, and they were going to document that. [12:31] And so I think those efforts are critically important. [12:35] Procedural question, if this does get removed to federal court, so your prosecutors there will be a Minnesota statute that they continue to prosecute, and will the federal judge be in charge of that? [12:49] Yes, so the question is, if this gets removed to federal court, essentially, who will the prosecutors be? [12:55] And that's a question we've heard quite often, because I've been asked, does that mean that you have to get the U.S. Attorney's Office on board to charge? [13:04] It does not. So if it was removed to federal court, which is actually a pretty low bar, but if it is removed to federal court, it will be our staff, some of whom are behind me, who will be prosecuting the case. [13:17] It is under state law. Procedural law would be federal law. It would be a federal court or a federal judge, and the jurors would be drawn from a larger area than Hennepin County. [13:31] So the federal jury, basically? Yes. But it is our team prosecuting, and I think something incredibly important here is if there is a conviction, Mr. Castro could not be pardoned by the president. [13:43] Is there a modern precedent for what you're trying to accomplish? [13:47] Is there a modern precedent for what we're trying to accomplish? I would say there's no modern precedent for what happened to the people here in Minnesota. And so it requires a lot of us to dig in and look at ways to hold people accountable that we probably never thought we would be looking at in our careers. [14:08] I was just sitting here thinking, watching you two, that you're up for election, you have decided not to run for re-election, and this is a slow-moving process. I wonder how you kind of view this in relation to the long road that these cases might take, and are there any assurances that the people of Minnesota can have that accountability will continue to be sought in the future, whether either of both of you are still or not? [14:38] The question is about the Attorney General is seeking re-election. I am not. Essentially, what happens after this? And I should make it clear, we have an agreement with the Attorney General's Office, that's the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, entered into an agreement at our request for support, in part because we thought it was important for the people of the state of Minnesota to see its officials working together and trying to get accountability. [15:08] The fact that that agreement can be revoked by the County Attorney's Office at any time, I think speaks to the critical nature of who the next County Attorney will be. Will that person continue with this work? Because I can guarantee you, this work will not be done by the end of my term. So will that person continue with this work? And I'll let the Attorney General speak to the question directed at him. [15:33] I'll simply say that we are absolutely committed to the final resolution of this matter on the basis of justice. And I want to definitely commend [15:49] the County Attorney General and the County Attorney who's done a remarkable job on this matter. But she will never, she doesn't have to fear that we're not going to carry on. Okay? [16:02] Yeah, and I'll just say that there's a long line of cases where state authorities have had to hold federal agents accountable for breaking state law. I think the first one is called N. Ray Nagel. And they flow from there. And so, as was said earlier, there's no such thing as absolute immunity. [16:27] Can you talk about what the timeline is for this and what are some of the next steps that can happen to move this forward? It kind of seems like you're up against a lot of challenges when, you know, we don't have this suspect in custody and maybe there's not a lot of cooperation on the federal level here. So can you talk about what needs to happen in order for this to actually... [16:45] Sure. We can't begin the process of prosecution until we have Mr. Castro, not necessarily in custody, but making an appearance here in state court in all likelihood. As I said, in the case of Mr. Morgan, we have made substantial progress in getting him here. [17:05] So I have great confidence that we will get Mr. Castro here in some way or another to start this process. What we expect is that he, just like any other federal agent, would make that motion to remove the case to federal court. [17:21] I mentioned that it's a very low bar. So it may be removed to federal court, which simply means that our team will be prosecuting the case in federal court rather than state court. [17:33] To get a little more in the weeds, for those of you who are interested in that, one of the defenses would be what's called supremacy clause immunity. It is not absolute immunity. And it is a defense. [17:45] It is a defense that a federal agent can raise. It has to be decided by a judge. So if the judge decides that supremacy clause immunity is not appropriate in this case or any other case, then we continue to prosecute it. [17:59] So it's a pretrial motion thing? [18:01] It is an evidentiary. It's supposed to be an evidentiary motion hearing that is decided by the judge. So that would require testimony to be presented. [18:13] But as the Attorney General said, there are cases out there, but not entirely like this. It's been interesting. And I know the Attorney General and I have talked about this a great deal. [18:24] You have to look back to probably the American Revolution for a situation where an entity was encroaching on the colonists or the states. They weren't states at the time, but people rose up because of that. [18:40] We went through a period in the civil rights era where the federal government had to come in to various states to help protect the rights of people in those states. [18:51] And so they were somewhat heroic in that era. And now we're completely reversed. We were occupied by our federal government, not at our request. [19:02] In fact, the occupation had nothing to do with crime, which is going down. It had nothing to do with anything that this administration said it had to do. [19:13] What we saw here in the community inflicted upon our community members was simply unprecedented. [19:20] So this is a situation where our community is still struggling. I should say that, too. [19:26] I was at a neighborhood association meeting last week where I heard that ICE was staging in this particular neighborhood. [19:37] And I heard stories of how people who were showing up to help students get to school were followed home by ICE agents and were terrified because people they believed to be ICE agents were driving by their home. [19:50] This has had a huge impact. They inflicted a huge amount of harm. And, you know, you could talk about it economically, but I don't know how you talk about children who are still afraid to go to school, people who are still afraid to go to their jobs. [20:07] Even though they may be here illegally, it did not matter. People were profiled during this. And that caused a great deal of harm. [20:15] It's still here in our community. It will have long-lasting effects. And what we hope to do as an office here is to, in our lane, bring some accountability for unlawful behavior that was inflicted upon our community. [20:29] When might you have a charging decision for the other two shootings, Alex Preddy and Renee Good? [20:36] The question was about a charging decision on Alex Preddy and Renee Good. I think I've been clear all through this process there are no timelines. [20:45] We have been thoughtful. We have multiple meetings every week with the federal partners that we're working with and the attorney general's office. [20:55] Investigations still continue. And we're not going to, we would not move forward until we feel that it's appropriate to charge or not charge. [21:04] And we feel confident that we're ready to go. And so I'm not going to put a timeline on it because that would just be artificial and we don't know. [21:13] So if, you know, if we decide to bring charges, we'll do that when we feel confident that we're ready to go. [21:20] Last question. [21:21] Are the charges serious enough that he could go to prison if he's convicted? [21:24] So the question is, yeah, second degree assault with a gun is a 36-month mandatory. [21:32] And it could be consecutive because it's multiple victims. [21:35] Thank you. [21:37] Thank you. [21:38] Thanks, everybody. [21:38] Thanks, everybody.