a wave of staff departures<\/a> from the federal prosecutor\u2019s office since the Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge, a concentrated immigration enforcement effort targeting the Twin Cities. The Justice Department in Washington has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\nThe day after the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attacked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing the Democrats of \u201cencouraging impeding and assault against our law enforcement which is a federal crime, a felony.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we saw last night in Minneapolis was an attempted murder of federal law enforcement,\u201d Noem said in a Jan. 15 statement. \u201cOur officer was ambushed and attacked by three individuals who beat him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms. Fearing for his life, the officer fired a defensive shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to requests for comment Friday asking whether Noem stands by those statements. The department also did not respond to questions about whether there was any investigation into the shooting or whether the ICE officer would face disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
Clark, the lawyer for Aljorna and Sosa-Celis, called Friday for the identify of the ICE agent to be made public and that he \u201cbe charged for his crime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holes already apparent in prosecution case<\/p>\n
Rosen\u2019s motion seeking to drop the charges did not detail what new evidence had emerged or what falsehoods had been in the government\u2019s prior filings, but cracks began to appear in the government\u2019s case during a Jan. 21 court hearing to determine whether the accused men could be released pending trial.<\/p>\n
In court, the ICE officer\u2019s account of the moments before the shooting differed significantly from testimony from the two defendants and three eyewitnesses. The ICE officer\u2019s account that he was assaulted with a broom and snow shovel was also not corroborated by available video evidence.<\/p>\n
Aljorna and Sosa-Celis denied assaulting the agent with a broom or a snow shovel. Neither video evidence nor testimony from a neighbor and the men\u2019s romantic partners supported the agent\u2019s account that he had been attacked with a broom or shovel or that a third person was involved.<\/p>\n
Frederick Goetz, a lawyer representing Aljorna, said his client had a broomstick in his hand and threw it at the agent as he ran toward the house. Attorney Robin Wolpert, representing Sosa-Celis, said he had been holding a shovel but was retreating into the home when the officer fired, wounding him. The men\u2019s attorneys said the prosecution\u2019s case relied wholly on testimony from the agent who fired the gun.<\/p>\n
Neither Aljorna and Sosa-Celis had violent criminal records. Both had been working as DoorDash delivery drivers at night in an attempt to avoid encounters with federal agents, their attorneys said.<\/p>\n
Aljorna and Sosa-Celis retreated into a nearby home and they barricaded the door to prevent federal agents from entering, according to the FBI agent. Federal officers used tear gas to try to force the men out of their home, he added. Out of concern for the safety of two children inside the home \u2014 both under the age of 2 \u2014 Aljorna and Sosa-Celis turned themselves over to authorities.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Biesecker reported from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 A federal judge in Minneapolis on Friday ordered the dismissal of felony assault charges against…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":587547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[254342,3881,10762,254345,356,254348,69,254346,57,4222,409,4228,55484,254343,2399,2936,17635,3663,3669,50,254347,2068,254344,235115,10409,3677,3665,8007,3676,51507,61,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-587546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-alfredo-alejandro-aljorna","tag-ap-top-news","tag-assault","tag-brian-d-clark","tag-courts","tag-daniel-n-rosen","tag-donald-trump","tag-frederick-goetz","tag-general-news","tag-gun-violence","tag-immigration","tag-indictments","tag-jacob-frey","tag-julio-cesar-sosa-celis","tag-kristi-noem","tag-law-enforcement","tag-minneapolis","tag-minnesota","tag-mn-state-wire","tag-news","tag-paul-magnuson","tag-race-and-ethnicity","tag-robin-wolpert","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sexual-assault","tag-shootings","tag-tim-walz","tag-trials","tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","tag-u-s-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}