ICE Agents Lied Under Oath About Shooting a Man in Minneapolis and Video Proved It
On January 14, 2026, two ICE agents conducted a traffic stop in north Minneapolis. By the end of it, a Venezuelan man named Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis had a bullet in his leg. The agents told a federal court they were ambushed by three immigrants armed with a snow shovel and a broom handle. They said the officer fired a "defensive shot" to save his own life.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called it "an attempted murder of federal law enforcement."
There was just one problem. Video footage showed none of that happened.
The Story Falls Apart
A joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice found that the two officers' sworn testimony contained what Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons described as "untruthful statements." FBI investigators noted in their affidavit that Sosa-Celis and another man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, dropped the broom and shovel and were running toward a nearby apartment when the shot was fired. Sosa-Celis was 10 feet away, fleeing, when the bullet hit his thigh.
Sosa-Celis's partner, Indriany Mendoza Camacho, was standing right there. She told reporters: "I'm a witness, I saw everything, and my partner never grabbed anything to hit him or anything like that."
Three eyewitnesses backed her version. Surveillance video backed her version. The only people whose story didn't hold up were the two officers.
U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen moved to dismiss all charges against both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna on February 12, calling the new evidence "materially inconsistent" with the criminal complaint. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson threw the case out with prejudice, meaning these charges can never be refiled.
Part of a Bigger Pattern
This happened during Operation Metro Surge, the largest immigration enforcement operation in American history. Starting in December 2025, roughly 3,000 federal agents flooded Minnesota. Over 4,000 people were arrested. The operation officially ended on February 12, 2026.
But the body count didn't end with Sosa-Celis's leg wound. Two U.S. citizens died during Metro Surge: Alex Pretti, a 28-year-old VA nurse who was filming officers when they pepper-sprayed him, shoved him to the ground, and shot him dead. And Renee Good, a mother of three, shot by federal officers during a separate encounter.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told PBS that state investigators were "denied access to critical evidence" -- vehicles, firearms, shell casings. The feds wouldn't hand over anything needed to investigate their own agents.
Governor Tim Walz said it plainly: "They left us with deep damage, generational trauma."
Todd Lyons testified to Congress on February 12 that ICE conducted 37 investigations into officer use-of-force incidents over the past year. He didn't say how many resulted in discipline. Two agents are on administrative leave, facing possible termination and criminal prosecution. Their names have not been released.
The video evidence that exposed the lies came from surveillance cameras and bystander phones. Without it, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis would still be charged with assaulting federal officers, facing prison time for a crime that never happened.
Full NPR report on the false testimony
PBS coverage of Operation Metro Surge aftermath