The city of Minneapolis released a video on Monday that undermined the initial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) account of a shooting involving an agency officer and two Venezuelan men in January.
The video, from a city-owned security camera, captured federal officers chasing one of the men to his residence. Another Venezuelan man who lives there was shot during the confrontation, which eventually led to the suspensions of two federal officers involved in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, the so-called Operation Metro Surge.
Meanwhile, federal authorities in February dropped all charges against the two immigrants and opened a criminal investigation into whether the officers lied under oath about what had happened.
The city released the video after the New York Times, which obtained a copy earlier, reported that the footage raised questions about why it took weeks for the federal government’s case against the two men, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, to collapse. Among other things, though the ICE officer at the center of the case claimed at first that he tussled with both men for about three minutes before firing, the video released on Monday depicted a confrontation lasting about 12 seconds.
The Times reported that federal investigators had access to the video within hours of the 14 January shooting – but did not watch it until nearly three weeks after they had charged the two men.
“The 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’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said in a statement.
Frey’s statement echoed the frustrations of state and county prosecutors over the refusal of federal authorities to share information on the 14 January shooting, as well as the fatal shootings, also in Minneapolis, by federal agents of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Video also contradicted federal officials’ initial statements of the Good and Pretti killings, which occurred on 7 and 24 January, respectively. Unlike in the Aljorna and Sosa-Celis case, however, there is no indication that any federal government action may be forthcoming against the agents involved in the killings of Good and Pretti.
Minnesota prosecutors sued the Trump administration late in March for access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate all three of those shootings.
The Hennepin county attorney’s office declined to comment on the video of the Aljorna and Sosa-Celis case released on Monday, citing the active investigation into the matter.
Federal authorities initially accused Aljorna and Sosa-Celis of beating an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. The officer fired a single shot from his handgun, striking Sosa-Celis’s right thigh. Protesters quickly flocked to the scene and clashed with other officers, who were wearing gas masks and helmets.
The city government of Minneapolis provided no narrative of what the video depicts except to say that it was “related” to the shooting. A statement added: “The city has no additional information and will not be making further comments at this time.”
The video, shot from a distance in the dark, appears to show a person standing with a snow shovel outside the house, near the street, then retreating toward the house and tossing the shovel into the yard. This happens as a person being chased by another person runs up from the street, falls on the sidewalk, gets up and keeps heading toward the house.
The three appear to scuffle near the front steps for about 10 seconds. The exact moment when Sosa-Celis is shot isn’t clear. A car with flashing lights pulls up, and another person walks up.
The camera actively panned over to view the street where the incident happened before any vehicles arrived, indicating that someone may have been manually controlling it in real time.
The cases against Aljorna and Sosa-Celis were dropped after a highly unusual motion from the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, US attorney Daniel Rosen, who said “newly discovered evidence” was “materially inconsistent with the allegations” that were made in the criminal complaint and with evidence presented at a preliminary hearing. He said dismissal with prejudice – which meant the charges couldn’t be refiled – “would serve the interests of justice”.
Rosen and other federal prosecutors involved in the case, as well as the justice department, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press on Monday.
ICE did not mention Monday’s video in a statement but reaffirmed its earlier statement that two officers involved appeared to have given untruthful testimony under oath. The agency said the officers were immediately placed on administrative leave pending completion of an internal investigation. Their names were not made public.
“Lying under oath is a serious federal offense,” the ICE statement said. “The US attorney’s office is actively investigating these false statements.
“Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution.”
The statement did not elaborate on the status of their case.
Aljorna’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Sosa-Celis’s attorney, Robin Wolpert, said: “The video is evidence in ongoing state and federal investigations so I can’t comment.”
Both men are free while they seek legal status. They were ordered released even before the criminal charges were dropped, but ICE took them back into custody for alleged immigration violations before releasing them – again under court order.
The Associated Press contributed reporting