DOJ moves to drop charges against men arrested

The U.S. Justice Department has moved to drop charges against two ​men charged with assaulting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minneapolis in January after an officer shot a Venezuelan immigrant, ​a court document showed on Thursday. The top federal prosecutor in ​Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, asked a judge to ⁠dismiss the charges, writing that “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations.” ​Rosen sought the dismissal ‌with prejudice, which means the charges cannot be reintroduced. The shooting that wounded the Venezuelan man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, came during President Donald ​Trump’s widely condemned surge of immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Trump’s immigration crackdown, said in January officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop ‌on Sosa-Celis when ‌he sped away, ​crashed his car and fled on foot. DHS said at the time that Sosa-Celis and two oth
er men hit an ICE officer who pursued him with a snow shovel and broom handle, prompting the shooting. But court documents ​unsealed later told a different story. An FBI affidavit said the ICE officers had scanned a license plate registered to a different person suspected of an immigration violation, leading them ​to chase the wrong person. The affidavit said another man was driving the car and was the sole occupant – not Sosa-Celis. The car’s actual driver – another Venezuelan immigrant – crashed and fled to an apartment building where Sosa-Celis was present, it said. At the building, an ‌ICE officer trying to detain the driver was struck by him and Sosa-Celis with a broom, while a third man used a shovel – before the officer fired. While DHS ⁠said initially that the ​officer “fired a defensive shot to defend his life”, the FBI affidavit said the alleged attackers dropped the broom and shovel when they saw the officer draw his gun and were fleeing as ⁠he fired. T