FBI reveals how mistaken identity by ICE led to chase, shooting of Venezuelan immigrant in north Minneapolis

The FBI provided its most robust explanation of the car chase and alleged assault that led an ICE agent to shoot a Venezuelan immigrant at his north Minneapolis duplex on Jan. 14, including how a case of mistaken identity triggered the chain of events that culminated in hours of unrest that night.

In a sworn affidavit, FBI Special Agent Timothy Schanz provides details that contradict what U.S. Department of Homeland Security [DHS] officials initially stated — and later repeated for several days — about the highly charged encounter.

Schanz’s account shows how an attempted traffic stop by two ICE agents did not involve the man they ultimately shot, 34-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. The newly unsealed records more closely align with witness accounts provided to the Minnesota Star Tribune this week.

No information has been released about the agent who shot Sosa-Celis.

The affidavit, filed Jan. 16, was made public ahead of a detention hearing for Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, 26, in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Both men are charged with assaulting a federal officer.

The two men, both Venezuelan nationals, are longtime friends and fellow Door Dash delivery drivers who, according to DHS, illegally entered the country in May of 2023. At some point Sosa-Celis had Temporary Protected Status but their current immigration status is unclear. They lived on the top floor of a north Minneapolis duplex with their respective 19-year-old partners and toddler sons.

The young women were transferred to a Texas facility late last week, relatives said, where they are awaiting their own immigration court hearings. Neither is believed to have a criminal record in Minnesota. Their small children were returned to their grandmothers in Minnesota the day after the shooting.

Until then, they will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The affidavit explains how Sosa-Celis and Aljorna came to be in a fight with an ICE agent on their front lawn.

Two out-of-state ICE agents who had been assigned to Minneapolis were conducting enforcement and removal operations last week. They were not “familiar with the Minnesota area” and, the FBI said, were riding in an unmarked vehicle with emergency lights and a siren.

They came upon a car and ran the license plates. Their database showed the car registered to Joffre Barrera, a 35-year-old flagged as being in the country illegally.

But Aljorna was driving the car. He told authorities he purchased it off Facebook Marketplace for $750.

For several days after the incident, the DHS repeatedly said that Sosa-Celis was the original target of the enforcement effort and was driving the car before he fled, assaulted the ICE agent and was shot.

The affidavit says the agents lost track of the car, but found it after it hit a light pole on the 600 block of N. 24th Av. in north Minneapolis. Aljorna, who had called Sosa-Celis during the chase, got out and ran to his nearby duplex. One of the ICE agents got out and chased him, while the other stayed in the car.

Aljorna was told to stop but kept running toward the house where Sosa-Celis was standing on the porch, allegedly telling Aljorna to “run faster.” Aljorna slipped and the agent caught up to him and “began tussling with him on the ground.”

Sosa-Celis then allegedly grabbed a broom and said, “Let him go” before hitting the agent in the face, according to the affidavit. The agent said he thought a third man was there, hitting him with a shovel, but no third man is named in the indictment.

The affidavit notes that the ICE agent “had difficulty seeing the assailants” due to bad lighting in the yard. Surveillance footage provided to the FBI by the Minneapolis Police Department did not capture the entire incident but showed “three individuals in a physical altercation.”

The Minnesota Star Tribune could not independently verify that Hernandez-Ledezma had any role in the incident or was present at the time.

While the agent was being hit with a broom, court records say, Aljorna slipped free from the agent’s grasp and “looked back at [the agent] with a scowl on his face.” Sosa-Celis then passed the broom to Aljorna who allegedly began hitting the agent, as the officer shielded himself with his left hand.

The agent used his right hand to draw his gun. “As soon as the assailants saw [the agent] draw his pistol, they dropped the broom and the snow shovel and began to run towards [the duplex],” the affidavit reads.

The agent fired one shot, hitting Sosa-Celis in the leg. The two men ran into the duplex and closed the front door, prompting a tense standoff that lasted for approximately an hour.

ICE agents shot tear gas through the window and ultimately entered the duplex to arrest Sosa-Celis and Aljorna. Their immediate family members were also detained.

Following the altercation, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said: “Our agent is beat up, he’s bruised, he is injured, he’s getting treatment, and we’re thankful that he made it out alive.”

The FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducted interviews with Sosa-Celis, Aljorna and their partners. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna allegedly admitted to knowing they had immigration status issues and were aware of ICE enforcement in the Twin Cities.

Sosa-Celis said he had a shovel in his hands but never used it against the agent. He said he pulled Aljorna off the ICE agent and into the duplex. Aljorna said he “grabbed a broom that was by the door and threw it in the direction of the ICE agent.”

Sosa-Celis said it appeared that four or five ICE agents were on the scene as this was all happening. The ICE agent who fired the shot said he was alone during the encounter. The second ICE agent who was in the car said he pulled up to the home and got out of the car in time to hear the gunshot.

Both Aljorna and Sosa-Celis said the gunshot came after they had closed the front door to their duplex. When a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter approached the duplex 36 hours after the shooting, the front entrance had been boarded up, making it impossible to check whether a bullet had penetrated the door.

One short clip, verified by the Star Tribune, shows Sosa-Celis’ partner, Indriany, frantically explaining to relatives what happened over the phone.

“First, Julio got home. They were chasing Alfredo; he had to get out of his car and run,” she says in Spanish during the call translated for the Star Tribune. “He ran and they threw themselves on top of him. Julio opened the door and they shot him.”

That call ended before ICE entered the house.

Another recording depicts several occupants speaking on the phone with 911 dispatch, reporting that Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg by ICE as he and Aljorna ran back into the house and attempted to close the door.

“They’re outside, trying to enter the house,” one woman says, as voices talk over each other and someone begins to cry. “Please send us help!”

From inside the house, Sosa-Celis phoned into a friend’s Facebook livestream asking for him to send help. Sosa-Celis told the host he had been shot in the leg and that authorities were “chasing my cousin.” (The affidavit explains that Sosa-Celis and Aljorna are not blood related but refer to each other as cousins.)

Eventually, federal agents shattered a second-story window, deploying tear gas inside as the women and children huddled in the dark, still on the line with relatives.

About 90 minutes later, after ICE breached the home, detained and separated the family members inside, Sosa-Celis called back into the his friend’s Facebook livestream from his hospital bed. He lifted his gown and showed the bullet hole in his thigh, confirming that there was a physical struggle with ICE outside before the shooting as he helped Aljorna break free and run to the house.

“The shot that was fired happened when my cousin managed to escape, and he entered inside,” Sosa-Celis said on the livestream. “I closed the door. And as I was locking it, I heard the shot.”

Minnesota court records show that Sosa-Celis had been given a citation for driving without a valid license in 2023. He has other traffic citations on his record and was also charged last August in Hennepin County with giving a false name to a Plymouth police officer.

Barrera, the man ICE agents believed they were pursuing, has been cited for a handful of traffic violations in Minnesota since 2024, including driving without a valid license, speeding, parking within 30 feet of a stop sign and parking on a sidewalk. He has no serious criminal history in the state and no federal cases against him.

Aljorna and Hernandez-Ledezma have no criminal record in Minnesota.

The shooting came seven days after Renee Good was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in south Minneapolis and protesters quickly descended on the scene.

Hours of clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement left residential streets blanketed by tear gas and led President Donald Trump to threaten to invoke the Insurrection Act to squelch protests and civil unrest in the Twin Cities. It also led to the arrest of two men after agents’ vehicles were vandalized and government property stolen at the scene.

A Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court and made public Tuesday expands on what was allegedly taken.

As for tracking down the items, FBI director Kash Patel said last week one of the guns was recovered. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms said it was a rifle that was recovered. The affidavit said a sheriff’s detective found two pieces of body armor in the home of Raul Gutierrez, 33, of Minneapolis. Gutierrez has been charged with illegal gun possession and theft.