A federal prosecutor investigated an ICE officer’s shooting, then he was fired after objecting to the charges brought

Four sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that a federal prosecutor in Minnesota has been fired after he investigated possible civil rights crimes by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. The prosecutor was Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans, who was looking into ICE officer Christian Castro in connection with the shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant earlier this year.

CBS News reported that the Justice Department charged Castro this week with making false statements about the incident. The outlet said it had previously reported that the indictment remains sealed.

ProPublica reported earlier this week that Evans told attorneys for Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, the man who was shot, and other victims to prepare for Castro to face only a false-statements charge. ProPublica reported that such a charge would carry lesser penalties than criminal charges that he violated people’s constitutional rights under color of law.

ProPublica described an email in which the prosecutor said he objected to the directed charges

ProPublica quoted directly from an email it said Evans had sent to the attorneys. “This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” the email from Evans reportedly said. “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.” CBS News said it has not obtained the email reviewed by ProPublica.

CBS News reported that three sources said Evans is under investigation by the Justice Department. The Justice Department’s internal review of ICE-related incidents is part of a broader shift in oversight, as the FBI will no longer investigate ICE shootings.  Two of those sources said the investigation focuses on allegations of leaking. CBS News said it has reached out to Evans for comment.

Multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that a federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Castro on Wednesday. A source said he was taken into custody in Texas on Thursday and will make an initial court appearance on Friday.

Officials say Sosa-Celis is in the U.S. illegally. CBS News reported that the case centers on a January incident involving Castro and Sosa-Celis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Minneapolis area. After Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg, federal prosecutors charged him and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna with forcibly assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers.

CBS News reported that the federal government’s description of the lead-up to the shooting has shifted and that ICE later accused its agents of lying about the incident. Such discrepancies in official accounts have appeared in other ICE-related cases, like when an agent’s bullet tore through a Minneapolis door and lodged in a child’s room wall.  

The Department of Homeland Security initially said Sosa-Celis fled a traffic stop on foot and that when an ICE agent tried to arrest him, two other men attacked the agent with a shovel and a broomstick. DHS said Sosa-Celis then broke free and started attacking the agent as well, leading the agent to fire a “defensive shot to defend his life.”

An FBI affidavit filed in the criminal case against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna alleged that Aljorna, not Sosa-Celis, fled the traffic stop. The affidavit said Sosa-Celis had first struck the ICE agent with a broomstick while the agent tried to arrest Aljorna. According to the affidavit, the agent described the encounter as a three-minute-long tussle.

A Democratic state senator shared cellphone video that showed a woman telling 911 her husband was chased by ICE agents before he reached his home and was shot in front of his family. The New York Times later released a video that showed the altercation involving Aljorna and Sosa-Celis lasted far less than three minutes.

The Justice Department dropped the case a month after Aljorna and Sosa-Celis were charged, saying “newly discovered evidence” was “materially inconsistent” with the allegations against them. Todd Lyons, who led ICE at the time, said a review of video evidence showed two ICE officers had made “untruthful statements” in sworn testimony. He said the officers would be placed on administrative leave and could face prosecution.

Castro, the ICE agent who shot Sosa-Celis, was charged in May on state charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime and was arrested in Texas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to extradite him to Minnesota. That refusal prompted a legal battle that ended with a Texas jail releasing Castro last week.