When an immigration agent shot Julio C. Sosa-Celis in the leg last month in Minneapolis, the Trump administration rushed to sell a version of events that demonized the wounded man and defended the agent.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claimed that three people had attacked an agent with a broom and snow shovel. She said the agent “fired a defensive shot to defend his life.” The next day, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the men of trying to kill the agent.

But the federal government’s account soon shifted.

When assault charges were filed days after the shooting against Sosa-Celis and one of the other men, Alfredo A. Aljorna, officials changed their narrative, saying it was not three people who attacked the agent, but two. Several other details revealed in court records also differed from the original account.

Then on Thursday, the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota asked a judge to drop the case, saying that “newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations.” On Friday, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, said two agents had been placed on leave for providing accounts that appeared to conflict with video footage of what happened. Those agents, he said, could eventually face termination and prosecution.

The collapse of the government’s narrative was the latest instance of tDHS providing an account of a shooting that later proved questionable or outright wrong.

In Chicago, where a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a woman last year, prosecutors dropped the charges against her after concerns about evidence were raised. The woman, Marimar Martinez, has since sought to clear her name and has pushed back against the Trump administration’s description of her as a domestic terrorist.

And after two fatal shootings by immigration agents in Minneapolis this year, President Donald Trump and his allies rushed to cast the people who were killed, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, as domestic terrorists. Administration officials persisted in those claims even after some of their accounts were contradicted by videos.

Brian D. Clark, a lawyer for Sosa-Celis and Aljorna, said that his clients were vindicated by the latest development.

“They are so happy justice is being served by the government’s request to dismiss all charges,” he said.

Judge Paul A. Magnuson granted the prosecutor’s request and dismissed the charges Friday with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be refiled.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Mitch Smith and Hamed Aleaziz/David Guttenfelder
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