Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis had his life turned upside down on January 14, 2026. An ICE agent shot him in the leg during a federal raid. Federal authorities immediately painted him and his housemate Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna as violent criminals who ambushed officers with a shovel and broom. Charges were filed. His name was dragged through the mud nationwide as a dangerous criminal illegal alien. People still see him that way because the city stayed silent.
The city had possession of the surveillance video from day one. They sat on it for 82 days until April 6, 2026, when they finally released it under pressure.
City surveillance still from the January 14 raid at North Lyndale and North 24th. The taxpayer-funded camera that caught the truth the feds tried to bury.
Here is the official government record, straight from city and federal sources. Read it and decide for yourself.
1. The cameras belong to the city.
On April 6, 2026, the City of Minneapolis posted the 9-minute video on its own official website. The release explicitly states the footage was captured by city-owned cameras at the intersection of North Lyndale Avenue and North 24th Avenue.
Official city release: https://www.minneapolismn.gov/news/2026/april/jan-14-video/
Coverage confirming city-owned camera: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/04/06/minneapolis-releases-video-of-non-fatal-shooting-ice-alfredo-aljorna-and-julio-sosacelis
This is not one of the new 2025 speed-safety cameras. It belongs to the longstanding MPD fixed public safety surveillance network.
Side-by-side stills from the released city video showing the brief confrontation. Sosa-Celis dropping the shovel and running, not ambushing anyone.
2. City officials handed the raw tape to the feds within hours.
MPD had the footage the same day as the January 14, 2026 shooting. Federal prosecutors and ICE received a copy immediately to support felony assault charges against Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna. Court records and DOJ statements confirm the city provided the evidence to build the federal case.
Coverage on immediate hand-off and federal use: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/us/minnesota-ice-shooting-video.html
https://sahanjournal.com/public-safety/ice-shooting-north-minneapolis-city-surveillance-footage/
3. The city knew exactly what the tape showed.
The video (now public on the city site) shows Sosa-Celis dropping the shovel and running away. Federal agents sworn affidavits claimed the opposite (an ambush with broom and snow shovel). Prosecutors had the city tape in hand from day one; charges were filed anyway, then dropped after newly discovered evidence proved the affidavits false.
Video contradicts ICE claims: https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/04/06/newly-released-surveillance-footage-of-jan-14-ice-shooting-contradicts-agents-account/
Federal agents in tactical gear during the Minneapolis ICE operations. The militarized dragnet the city apparatus fed with its own camera data.
4. The city sat on the tape for 82 days.
Shooting: January 14, 2026. Video release: April 6, 2026. For nearly three months the city cited ongoing investigation while federal agents were reprimanded for lying under oath and a U.S. Attorneys criminal probe opened into perjury. The city issued zero statements correcting the public record during that period.
Timeline and 82-day delay details: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/us/minnesota-ice-shooting-video.html
https://sahanjournal.com/public-safety/ice-shooting-north-minneapolis-city-surveillance-footage/
5. The city only released it when cornered.
The city April 6 release contains no commentary, just the raw file and a note that they have no additional information. Independent journalists and open-records pressure (including references in a separate search warrant) forced the hand. The city never volunteered the footage; it dropped it only after external scrutiny made continued silence impossible.
Release under pressure: https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/04/06/newly-released-surveillance-footage-of-jan-14-ice-shooting-contradicts-agents-account/
Raw video evidence the city finally dropped:
Watch the full city surveillance footage that exposes the lie. Search YouTube for “Minneapolis city video ICE shooting Sosa-Celis April 2026”. Multiple news outlets uploaded the 9-minute clip.
CBS Minnesota breakdown and related segments: search YouTube for “CBS Minnesota ICE shooting video April 2026”.
On the camera network itself:
The fixed public safety cameras, including those in the North Side, were already in place and expanding under MPD programs by 2016. A 2016 MinnPost article described a dense grid of MPD surveillance cameras in North Minneapolis, with a camera at nearly every intersection in a geographic square bordered on the north by Lowry Avenue, on the east by Lyndale, on the south by Golden Valley Road/W. Broadway Avenue, and on the west by Penn Avenue.
2016 MinnPost on North Side camera density: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2016/07/say-cheese-here-s-where-police-surveillance-cameras-are-located-minneapolis/
ICE tactical response in North Minneapolis streets. Tear gas, armored agents, and the local surveillance grid feeding the machine.
The material facts speak for themselves. The city apparatus, paid for by local taxes and owned by local government, chose the federal deportation machine over the resident bleeding in the snow. This is not cooperation. It is complicity.
