ICE says federal agents appear to have lied about confrontation that led to shooting
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said Friday that two federal officers lied about an incident last month in Minneapolis that resulted in one of them shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg.
Lyons said the two officers are under investigation by the Department of Justice. The announcement came a day after federal prosecutors dropped criminal cases against him Two immigrants in connection with the incident on January 14. Department of Homeland Security leaders, including Secretary Kristi Noem previously defended officersHe said they were fending off an “attempted murder” and that a police officer fired in self-defense.
“A joint review of video evidence by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed that affidavits from two separate officers made untrue statements,” Lyons said in a statement. “Both officers were immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a comprehensive internal investigation… The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements.”
Agents initially said two men (Alfredo Aljorna and Julio Sosa Celis) attacked them with a broom and shovel, then one of them shot Sosa Celis. However, this explanation quickly began to be questioned and Now prosecutors say “newly discovered evidence” contradicts the officers’ story.
Local law enforcement and prosecutors are also investigating the incident. ICE’s reversal came a day after the White House announced it would cut the number of federal immigration enforcement officers in the Twin Cities and a judge condemned the Trump administration for violating the rights of immigration detainees held at a local facility.
It’s the latest twist in a harrowing odyssey for the two men initially accused of attacking the officers and several other immigrants living in the apartment complex where the shooting occurred.
On the night of the shooting, ICE also detained Aljorna’s 19-year-old partner, who came to the country as a minor and was initially housed in a humanitarian shelter, and took him to Texas and then New Mexico for potential deportation. After learning that the couple’s one-year-old son was severely burned and required emergency surgery, a federal judge in New Mexico deemed his detention unlawful and ordered his immediate release.
Federal judge Paul Magnuson, who presided over the criminal case against Aljorna and Sosa, ordered them released from pretrial detention, but ICE picked them up and placed them in immigration detention. Magnuson, a Reagan appointee, also ordered ICE to refrain from deporting potential witnesses to the incident. Another judge, George W. Bush appointee Patrick Schiltz, also ruled that the detention of the two defendants was unlawful and ordered their release.
Prosecutors said at a brief hearing Thursday that testimony provided by an FBI agent who signed an affidavit supporting the charges and testified in court was based on information presented to the agent but turned out to be “materially inconsistent” with newly discovered information.
