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By JIM MUSTIAN, MICHAEL BIESECKER and JACK BROOK
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota and federal authorities are investigating the alleged beating of a Mexican citizen by immigration officers final month, in search of to establish what induced the eight cranium fractures that landed the person within the intensive care unit of a Minneapolis hospital.
Investigators from the St. Paul Police Division and FBI final week canvassed the buying middle car parking zone the place Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers wrested him from a car, threw him to the bottom and repeatedly struck him within the head with a metal baton.
ICE has blamed Castañeda Mondragón for his personal accidents, saying he tried to flee whereas handcuffed and “fell and hit his head in opposition to a concrete wall.”
However hospital workers who handled the person informed The Related Press such a fall couldn’t plausibly account for the person’s mind hemorrhaging and fragmented reminiscence. A CT scan confirmed fractures to the entrance, again and each side of his cranium — accidents a physician informed the AP had been inconsistent with a fall.
Earlier this month, the AP printed an interview with Castañeda Mondragón by which he stated the arresting officers had been “racist” and “ began beating me immediately after they arrested me.” His attorneys have contended ICE racially profiled him.
In separate visits to the buying middle final week, native and federal investigators requested surveillance footage from at the very least two companies, whose workers informed the AP their cameras both didn’t seize the Jan. 8 arrest or the pictures had been overwritten as a result of greater than a month handed earlier than regulation enforcement requested for the video.
Johnny Ratana, who owns Teepwo Market, an Asian grocery retailer that faces the car parking zone the place the arrest occurred, stated St. Paul police twice despatched investigators to the enterprise in current days. The second time, he stated, a knowledge technician sought to get better photographs routinely overwritten after 30 days.
Ratana stated he additionally was visited by FBI brokers concerned about the identical footage.
The St. Paul Police Division didn’t reply to requests for remark. The FBI declined to remark.
The investigations come amid one other federal probe into whether or not two ICE officers lied beneath oath a couple of taking pictures in Minneapolis. Federal prosecutors dropped costs in opposition to two Venezuelan males — who had been accused of attacking one of many officers with a snow shovel and broom deal with — after video proof contradicted the officers’ sworn testimony.
The FBI, in the meantime, notified Minnesota authorities final week it will not share any info or proof it collected within the Jan. 24 deadly taking pictures of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers. That killing is the topic of a Justice Division civil rights investigation.
For weeks, the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety refused to debate any side of Castañeda Mondragón’s accidents. It has not answered detailed questions from the AP, together with whether or not its officers recorded body-worn digicam footage of the arrest.
Company insists man injured himself
However the company final week doubled down on its declare that Castañeda Mondragón injured himself.
“On January 8, 2026, ICE carried out a focused enforcement operation to arrest Alberto Castaneda Mondragon, a 31-year-old unlawful alien from Mexico who overstayed his visa,” stated Tricia McLaughlin, the division’s assistant secretary for public affairs “Whereas in handcuffs, Castaneda tried to flee custody and ran towards a foremost freeway. Whereas operating, Castaneda fell and hit his head in opposition to a concrete wall.”
McLaughlin’s assertion that Castañeda Mondragón had been focused for removing was contradicted by a Jan. 20 courtroom submitting by which ICE stated officers solely decided the person overstayed his work visa after he was in custody. McLaughlin didn’t reply to questions on which account was appropriate.
Castañeda Mondragón’s attorneys declined to touch upon ICE’s assertion.
Delay may have an effect on investigations
The felony investigations could possibly be difficult by the period of time it took regulation enforcement to look into the arrest, at the same time as a number of elected officers known as for solutions.
St. Paul police informed the AP on Feb. 5 that it was conscious of “the intense allegations” surrounding the arrest however that it couldn’t start investigating Castañeda Mondragón’s accidents till he filed a police report — a step that was delayed weeks due to the person’s hospitalization and uncertainty over his immigration standing. Police lastly took his assertion per week in the past on the Mexican consulate.
By that time, at the very least one close by enterprise had overwritten its surveillance footage.
“It’s my expectation that we are going to examine previous and future allegations of felony conduct by federal brokers to hunt the reality and maintain accountable anybody who has violated Minnesota regulation,” John Choi, the chief prosecutor of Ramsey County, stated in an announcement.
Castañeda Mondragón has been summoned to fulfill with ICE on Feb. 23 at its foremost detention facility in Minneapolis, elevating the potential he could possibly be taken again into custody and deported.
Biesecker reported from Washington and Brook from New Orleans. AP reporter Cedar Attanasio contributed from Seattle.
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