The city of Minneapolis released a video on Monday that undermines the initial account given by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of a shooting involving an agency officer and two Venezuelan men in January. The footage, captured by a city-owned security camera, shows a confrontation lasting about 12 seconds, contradicting the officer's claim of a three-minute struggle.
The two men, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, were initially charged with assaulting an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. The officer fired a single shot, striking Sosa-Celis in the right thigh. However, federal authorities dropped all charges in February and opened a criminal investigation into whether the officers lied under oath.
Federal investigators had access to the video within hours of the 14 January shooting, but the New York Times reported that they did not watch it until nearly three weeks after charging the two men. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated, "The video makes it crystal clear that the federal government's account of what happened simply does not match the facts."
The incident occurred during Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The video also raises questions about two other fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, those of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Minnesota prosecutors have sued the Trump administration for access to evidence to independently investigate all three shootings.
The Hennepin County attorney's office declined to comment on the video, citing the active investigation. The city government provided no narrative of the video, stating only that it was "related" to the shooting and would not make further comments at this time.
