Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna was on duty as a DoorDash driver in Minneapolis on a Wednesday night last month when he realized he was being followed by ICE agents, his attorney said.
He was driving home and was stopped by an agent, but he broke free and ran into the house where his cousin, Julio Cesar Sosa-Sellis, was standing, the attorney said. Sosa-Sellis said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot him in the leg as he closed the door and tried to lock it.
Just seven days after a federal agent shot and killed Renee Good, the incident sparked a new wave of protests and violent clashes with police. Shortly after the incident, the Department of Homeland Security’s version of events contradicted accounts given by the two men and their families.
DHS claims Sosa-Sellis was driving the vehicle and that he, Aljona and another man attacked the agents before they opened fire.
The first clue that the government was questioning the DHS accounts came from the U.S. Department of Justice. In court documents filed Jan. 16, the Justice Department supported criminal charges against the two men, saying Aljona was the driver of the car.
In a shocking move, the Justice Department filed a motion Thursday seeking to drop criminal charges against two Venezuelan men. In it, the Justice Department said federal prosecutors provided incorrect information to the court, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a statement acknowledging that its federal agents made “false statements” under oath.
ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement that the two federal agents involved have been placed on administrative leave and that the Justice Department is investigating their “false statements” that were discovered through a review of video evidence.
Lyons said the two officers could be fired and face criminal prosecution.
The Justice Department’s motion cited “newly discovered evidence” that contradicted the agency’s statements as the basis for criminal charges against the men.
It’s unclear what video evidence was discovered, which is described in the motion as “significantly inconsistent with what federal prosecutors allege in charging documents.” CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for further clarification on the evidence and whether it stands by its initial statements following the shooting, but has not received a response. The Justice Department declined to comment on the motion when contacted by CNN.
“This was absolutely an unreasonable use of force and the officer fabricated the charges against my client to justify it,” said Frederick J. Goetz, Aljona’s attorney.
Elie Honig, a senior CNN legal analyst, said the dismissed cases fit a larger pattern in which the federal government quickly releases accounts after law enforcement shootings that later turn out to be false, misleading or incomplete. For example, there is video evidence of the shooting deaths of Goode and Alex Pretty by federal agents, which appears to undermine the government’s version of what happened.
On February 3, 2026, federal agents stopped a car on a highway in Minneapolis after it allegedly collided with another car. – Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
Likewise, prosecutors last year moved in Chicago to drop charges against Marima Martinez, who the government said rammed a federal agent’s vehicle before shooting her several times. A judge dismissed the charges against Martinez last year, citing gaps in the government’s case that led her to err on the side of caution.
Martinez is demanding the release of evidence in the case. When released last week, the evidence supported Martinez’s claim that the vehicle that was struck was hers, not the agent’s. He bragged about the number of times he shot her, according to text messages sent by agents. In a press release, the Department of Homeland Security called the shooting “defensive fire.”
Honig said the federal government’s changing narrative in the Sosa-Sellis and Aljona cases further undermines the Trump administration’s credibility because the motion to dismiss the charges with prejudice is a more dramatic admission by federal prosecutors because it suggests they provided incorrect information, meaning the cases cannot be dismissed.
Attorneys for both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna praised the department’s motion, calling it “extraordinary” and “extremely rare” in statements to CNN.
Here’s what we know about the case and how it fell apart:
Federal agencies offer conflicting narratives
In a Jan. 15 press release, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that federal agents targeted Sosa-Sellis, not Arjona, during an immigration enforcement operation on Jan. 14 at a traffic stop when he tried to evade arrest, crashed into a parked car and attempted to flee on foot.
DHS said Sosa-Sellis allegedly began “resisting and violently assaulting” one of the officers and the two “struggled on the ground” before “breaking free and beginning to attack the officer with a shovel or broom stick,” at which point the officer fired a “defensive shot.” Two other people emerged from a nearby apartment and attacked the officer, the agency said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the men’s actions as “an attempted murder of federal law enforcement.” When contacted by CNN days after the shooting, the agency stood by its original statement.
Community members filmed on their cell phones from across the street on Jan. 13, 2026, just days after ICE agents fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 13, 2026, as federal agents conducted an immigration raid. – Tim Evans/Reuters
However, on January 16, the Justice Department provided a different account of events in a document supporting criminal charges against Sosa-Sellis and Arjona. The document said the driver of the car was Aljorna, who prosecutors said weaved in and out of traffic while agents pursued the vehicle.
Aljona hit a light pole before fleeing the car, and an ICE agent chased him on foot toward his home, the affidavit said. Both Sosa-Sellis and Arjona are accused of hitting one of the agents with a shovel or broom, and then the agent pointed the weapon at the two men, causing them to run toward the home, the affidavit states.
As Sosa-Sellis and Arjona ran inside, the agent fired a pistol shot “in close proximity” to the two men, but at the time the officer was “unsure if his gun hit either of them,” the Justice Department affidavit said.
Video and interviews with family smear DHS account
Arjona’s attorney told CNN that the Trump administration’s claim that his client and Sosa-Sellis attacked federal agents with brooms or shovels “never happened.”
Sosa-Sellis posted a live video on his Facebook account from his hospital room describing a struggle with federal agents as he helped his cousin escape arrest and gain entry into their shared home.
Goetz, Goode’s attorney, said that when Aljona was followed in the car, Goode’s shooting death a week earlier was still fresh in his mind and he was scared. Arjona called his family, who asked him to go home.
Goetz said that while approaching his home, Aljona lost control of the car due to icy road conditions and hit a snow bank. After Arjona ran out of the car, he was stopped by an ICE agent just 10 feet from the door when Sosa-Sellis walked out and told him to come inside, the attorney said.
Goetz said Aljona took off his jacket, escaped the agents’ grasp and ran to his cousin. He added that when shots rang out, they all ducked behind the door and closed it.
Their families reiterated the men’s accounts in interviews and live 911 video calls, which differed from the Department of Homeland Security’s statement.
One of the videos, reviewed by CNN, shows Sosa-Sellis’ partner making a video call in which she frantically describes to the family what she says happened, Sosa-Sellis’ mother, Alicia Sellis, told CNN.
In a video call, Sosa-Sellis’ partner said: “Julio got there first. They were chasing Alfredo – he had to jump out of the car.”
“He ran away and they jumped on him. Then Julio opened the door and they opened fire,” she added.
Another video obtained by CNN shows what happened outside the home as the family waited inside, showing agents approaching the home and setting off a flash bang. Smoke could be seen, crashing sounds were heard and someone said: “They’re coming in! There’s a dozen of them.”
“He told me, ‘Mom, ICE is after me,'” Arjona’s mother, Mabel Arjona, later said. “As soon as we got in, they shot Julio,” she added.
“When my cousin managed to escape, he went inside the house. I closed the door and when I locked the door, I heard gunshots and that’s when I realized I had been shot in the leg,” Sosa-Sellis said during a live broadcast from the hospital.
Judge points to government credibility issue
Sosa-Sellis’ attorney, Robin Wolpert, said on his behalf that “Sousa-Sellis is relieved that the federal criminal case is over,” adding that he is “determined to seek justice and hold ICE officers accountable for their unlawful conduct.”
Confrontations involving federal agents are often captured on video from multiple angles, which later helps dilute parts of the government’s version of events. Video of the murder of mother-of-three Renee Good in her car has raised questions about the federal agent’s tactics and decisions to use deadly force.
A woman holds flowers during a memorial for Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by ICE agents on February 12, 2026 in Minneapolis. -Stephen Matlen/Getty Images
Likewise, video of the killing of Alex Pretty by federal agents showed the intensive care unit nurse holding a cellphone in his right hand as an officer removed a gun from his back waistband before the shooting. The Trump administration claimed an agent “fired defensively” and claimed Pretty was “brandishing” a gun.
“It’s incredible that DHS continues this pattern of making immediate, unequivocal claims about what happened, only to be quickly contradicted by actual evidence,” said CNN senior legal analyst Honig.
Honig said judges across the country appointed by presidents of both parties have documented that DHS findings were untimely, untrue or untrustworthy.
The Trump administration faces growing credibility questions as an immigration crackdown unfolds in blue cities across the country. While several judges acknowledged that some of its accounts may be true, others described the government’s claims in court as “unreliable,” “unfettered by the facts” and “simply not credible,” CNN previously reported.
Honig said the motion to dismiss the charges against Sosa-Sellis and Arjona with prejudice is “highly unusual.” He added that this illustrates how governments rush to issue potentially premature statements that are sometimes incomplete or inaccurate but are later contradicted by emerging facts.
Federal prosecutors were put in a “very difficult position” when they later realized “what they told the court was not true,” Honig said, but they still had an obligation to correct the record.
“While judges generally give the Department of Justice a lot of deference and a lot of implicit credibility, that’s changing now,” he continued. “You don’t have credibility until you give it up.”
CNN’s Diego Mendoza, Caroll Alvarado and Alaa Elassar contributed to this report.
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