Federal prosecutor fired after investigating ICE officer for civil rights offenses in Minnesota shooting, sources say - CBS News

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Evans had been looking into ICE officer Christian Castro over the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis earlier this year. The Justice Department charged Castro this week with making false statements about the incident, but that indictment remains sealed.

Evans's firing came even as the case moved forward. ProPublica reported this week that Evans had told attorneys for Sosa-Celis and other victims to prepare for a limited outcome before he was removed from the case. The sequence raises questions about whether the prosecution will continue in the same direction without him.

The case touches directly on how federal civil rights laws apply to immigration enforcement officers when someone is shot. The Venezuelan man at the center of it was not a suspect in a crime when the shooting occurred, according to the reporting.

The indictment against Castro stays sealed for now, meaning the full scope of the charges is not yet public. Federal civil rights cases against law enforcement officers are rare, and the prosecutors willing to bring them are rarer still.