Christian Castro has been indicted on six federal counts of making materially false statements to investigators.
The incident occurred during an immigration operation in Minnesota early this year, raising questions about whether the agent was unfairly scapegoated amid statewide tensions over immigration law enforcement.
Both federal and Hennepin County prosecutors have formally charged Christian Castro, 52, for allegedly lying to investigators. However, one of his attorneys, David Lindenmuth, stated that his client has been targeted by “rabid” officials seeking someone to blame for controversies linked to Operation Metro Surge.
Lindenmuth described the situation: “He was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled. … There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.”
“The federal law enforcement being sent up there went through some pretty serious things,” Lindenmuth added. “There’s a couple of high-profile deaths, and because of that, I think what happened is Mr. Castro is basically the one they chose to prosecute.”
Lindenmuth did not name individuals involved in the “high-profile deaths.” The incident involving Castro occurred just one week after Renee Good was fatally shot on January 7.
On January 14, the Department of Homeland Security reported that an unnamed federal immigration officer had “fired a defensive shot to defend his life” during an immigration operation in Minnesota.
