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A man shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis was charged with assaulting law enforcement. A startling admission ended the case | CNN

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A man shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis was charged with assaulting law enforcement. A startling admission ended the case | CNN

Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna was on shift in Minneapolis on a Wednesday evening last month, making deliveries as a DoorDash driver, when he realized he was being followed by ICE agents, his attorney said.

He drove home and was tackled by an agent but broke free and ran into the house where his cousin Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis was standing, the attorney said. As he shut the door and was trying to lock it, Sosa-Celis said he was shot in the leg by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Coming just seven days after a federal agent fatally shot Renee Good, the incident spawned renewed protests and heated clashes with police. An account of the events from the Department of Homeland Security soon after the incident conflicted with the narratives from the two men and their family members.

DHS claimed Sosa-Celis was driving the car and he, Aljorna and another man assaulted the agent before the agent fired his weapon.

The first inkling of the government questioning the DHS account came from the US Department of Justice. In a January 16 court filing supporting criminal charges against the two men, the DOJ asserted Aljorna was the one driving the vehicle.

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In a stunning reversal, the Justice Department on Thursday filed a motion seeking to drop criminal charges against the two Venezuelan men. In it, the DOJ said federal prosecutors provided incorrect information to the court, while ICE issued a statement admitting its federal agents made “false statements” under oath.

The two federal agents involved have been placed on administrative leave while the Justice Department investigates their “untruthful statements,” which were revealed by a review of video evidence, ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.

The two officers may be fired and potentially face criminal prosecution, Lyons said.

DOJ’s motion cited “newly discovered evidence” contradicting statements the agency included as the basis for filing criminal charges against the men.

It’s not clear what video evidence was uncovered, described in the motion as “materially inconsistent with the allegations” from federal prosecutors in the charging document. CNN has reached out to DHS for further clarity on the evidence and whether it stands by the initial statement following the shooting but did not hear back. The DOJ declined to comment on the motion when contacted by CNN.

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“This was an absolute unreasonable use of force, and the officer was fabricating claims against my client to justify that,” said Aljorna’s attorney, Frederick J. Goetz.

The dismissed case fits into a larger pattern in which the federal government has been quick to release accounts after a shooting by its law enforcement agents, which were later proven to be false, misleading or incomplete, according to CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig. Examples include video evidence after federal agents fatally shot Good and Alex Pretti, which appeared to undermine elements of the government’s accounts of what happened.

Similarly, prosecutors last year filed to drop charges against Marimar Martinez in Chicago, who the government said rammed a federal agent’s vehicle before he shot her several times. A judge, who noted the government’s case included omissions that caused her to tread carefully, dismissed the charges against Martinez last year.

Martinez asked for evidence in the case to be released. When it was put out last week, the evidence bolstered Martinez’s account that hers was the vehicle rammed, not the agent’s. And text messages from the agent showed him bragging about the number of times he shot her. In a news release, the DHS called the shots “defensive fire.”

The shifting narratives from the federal government in the case of Sosa-Celis and Aljorna have further chipped away at the Trump administration’s credibility, as the motion to dismiss the charges with prejudice is a more dramatic admission from federal prosecutors because it indicates they put forth wrong information and means the case cannot be brought back, Honig said.

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Lawyers for both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna commended the department’s motion, calling it “extraordinary” and “exceedingly rare” in statements to CNN.

Here’s what we know about the case and how it fell apart:

In a January 15 news release, DHS claimed federal agents were targeting Sosa-Celis in a traffic stop – not Aljorna – as part of an immigration enforcement operation on January 14 when he attempted to evade arrest, crashed into a parked car and tried to flee on foot.

Sosa-Celis allegedly began to “resist and violently assault” one of the officers and the two were in a “struggle on the ground,” then “got loose and began striking the officer with a shovel or broom stick,” at which point the officer fired a “defensive shot,” DHS said. Two other people came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the officer, the agency said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem described the men’s actions as “an attempted murder of federal law enforcement.” The agency stood by its initial statement a few days after the shooting when contacted by CNN.

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On January 16, however, the Justice Department offered an account painting a different picture of the events in a filing supporting criminal charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna. That document said the driver of the car was Aljorna, who prosecutors said was zigzagging through traffic while agents pursued the vehicle.

Aljorna, the affidavit claimed, hit a light pole before fleeing from the car, with an ICE agent chasing him on foot toward the home. Both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were accused of hitting one of the agents with a shovel or broom before the agent pointed his weapon at the two men, causing them to run toward the home, the affidavit said.

As Sosa-Celis and Aljorna ran inside, the agent fired one round from his pistol “towards the vicinity” of the two men but at the time, the officer was “uncertain if his shot struck any of them,” the DOJ’s affidavit said.

Aljorna’s attorney told CNN the Trump administration’s claims his client and Sosa-Celis attacked federal agents with a broomstick or shovel “never happened.”

Sosa-Celis, speaking from a hospital room on a livestream video on his Facebook account, described engaging in some sort of struggle with federal agents as he was helping his cousin escape arrest and get inside their shared home.

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As Aljorna was being followed in his car, the fatal shooting of Good the week prior was fresh in his mind and he was fearful, according to Goetz, his attorney. Aljorna called his family members, who told him to get home.

Approaching his home, Aljorna lost control of the car due to ice on the roadway and hit a snowbank, Goetz said. Aljorna was then tackled by an ICE agent after running from the car, just 10 feet away from the door, where Sosa-Celis had walked out and called for him to get inside, the attorney said.

Aljorna was able to slip out of his jacket, freeing himself from the agent’s grasp, and ran to his cousin, Goetz said. They both got behind the door and closed it when a shot rang out, he added.

The accounts from the two men were reiterated by their family members in interviews and livestream videos of their 911 calls, which differed from DHS’ statement.

One of them showed a video call made by Sosa-Celis’ partner and reviewed by CNN, frantically describing to family members what she says happened, according to Alicia Celis, Sosa-Celis’ mother, who spoke to CNN.

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In one video call, Sosa-Celis’ partner said, “Julio arrived first. They were chasing Alfredo – he had to jump from his car.”

“He ran and they threw themselves on top of him. After, Julio threw open the door, and they shot,” she added.

A different video obtained by CNN shows what was happening outside the home while the family waited inside, revealing agents approaching the home and setting off a flash-bang. Smoke can be seen, and ramming sounds are heard as someone says, “They’re in! There’s more than a dozen of them.”

“He told me, ‘Mom, ICE was chasing me,” Aljorna’s mother Mabel Aljorna later said. “Once we were inside, they shot at Julio,’” she added.

In his livestream from the hospital, Sosa-Celis said, “The shot that was fired happened when my cousin managed to escape, and he entered inside. I closed the door and as I was locking it, I heard the shot, and that’s when I realized I had been shot in the leg.”

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Sosa-Celis is “relieved that the federal criminal case is over,” his attorney Robin Wolpert said on his behalf, adding he is “determined to seek justice and hold the ICE officer accountable for his unlawful conduct.”

Confrontations involving federal agents have routinely been captured on video from multiple angles, which later served to discount parts of the government’s narrative of events. Videos from the killing of Renee Good, a mother of three, in her vehicle, raised questions about the federal agent’s tactics and decision to use deadly force.

Similarly, footage showing federal agents killing Alex Pretti revealed the ICU nurse was holding a phone in his right hand, and an officer removing a gun from his back waistband before the shooting. The Trump administration claimed an agent “fired defensive shots” and asserted Pretti was “brandishing” a firearm.

“It’s mind-boggling that DHS continues this pattern of making immediate, definitive statements about what happened that are very quickly disproved by actual evidence,” said senior CNN legal analyst Honig.

Judges across the country who were appointed to the bench by presidents of both political parties have made findings on record about DHS not being forthcoming, truthful or credible, according to Honig.

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The Trump administration has faced mounting credibility issues as its immigration crackdown has rolled out in blue cities nationwide. Even as several judges have acknowledged parts of its narratives may be true, others have described the government’s claims in court as “unreliable,” “untethered to the facts” and “simply not credible,” CNN previously reported.

The motion to dismiss the charges against Sosa-Celis and Aljorna with prejudice is “remarkably unusual,” said Honig. It speaks to how the government has rushed to put out possibly premature statements, which are at times incomplete or inaccurate, only later to be contradicted by emerging facts, he added.

Federal prosecutors are put in a “very difficult position” when they realize later “that something they’ve said to a court is not true,” Honig said, but they nevertheless have a duty to correct the record.

“While judges ordinarily give the Justice Department a lot of deference and a lot of implied credibility, that’s changing now,” he continued. “You have credibility only until you give it away.”

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U.S. service members killed in refueling aircraft crash in Iraq identified as Ohio National Guard members and Florida-based crew

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U.S. service members killed in refueling aircraft crash in Iraq identified as Ohio National Guard members and Florida-based crew

Six U.S. service members who were killed in a military refueling aircraft crash over Iraq last week have been identified as members of the Ohio Air National Guard and Florida-based crew members. 

The Department of Defense on Saturday identified them as:

  • Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana
  • Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio
  • Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio
  • Maj. John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama
  • Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington
  • Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky

Koval, Angst and Simmons were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base, Columbus, Ohio. 

Klinner, Savino and Pruitt were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

Clockwise from top left: Capt. Seth R. Koval, Capt. Curtis J. Angst, Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, Capt. Ariana G. Savino, and Maj. John A. Klinner.

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National Guard


Simmons’ mother, Cheryl Simmons, recalled to CBS affiliate WBNS Friday the moment uniformed officers arrived at their home to deliver the news.

“When he opened the door he said, ‘Oh no,’ and I jumped up and ran in there and they were lined up out on the porch,” she told the station. “‘You got to be kidding me.’”

The six serviced members died on March 12 when an aerial refueling aircraft taking part in operations against Iran crashed in western Iraq. The KC-135 aircraft went down near Turaibil, which is along the Iraqi-Jordanian border, an Iraqi intelligence source told CBS News.

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised them as “American heroes.”

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the crew was on a combat mission but flying over friendly territory when the crash happened. The incident is under investigation, the Defense Department said.

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U.S. military bombs Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, Trump says

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U.S. military bombs Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, Trump says

This picture, taken a position in northern Israel, shows an Israeli Air Force fighter jet flying over the border area with southern Lebanon on March 13, 2026.

Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images


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Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump said on Friday the U.S. military had “totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island.”

In a Truth Social post Friday evening, Trump added that “for reasons of decency, I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the island.” The president warned that if Iran “or anyone else” interfere with the passage of ships in the Strait of Hormuz, “I will immediately reconsider this decision.”

Kharg Island sits 15 miles off Iran’s coast and is critical to Iran’s oil infrastructure and the country’s economy. Roughly 90 percent of Iran’s export crude oil passes through the island.

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On his way to Mar-a-Lago in Florida shortly before his post, Trump told reporters, “The situation in Iran is going very well. A lot of big hits today, a lot of big wins today.” Asked how long he thinks the war would last, he said, “I can’t tell you that. I mean, I have my own idea, but what good does it do? It will be as long as it’s necessary. They’ve been decimated. The country — their country’s in bad shape. The whole thing is collapsing.”

Earlier on Friday, the U.S. military had said that all six crew members were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft went down in Iraq, raising the American death toll after two weeks of war with Iran.

The news came as President Trump and his defense secretary touted the success of what they call Operation Epic Fury but complained about negative media coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes have hit more than 15,000 targets and injured the new Iranian supreme leader.

President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the U.S. is “totally destroying” Iran’s regime, militarily and economically.

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A woman looks at a building where an apartment was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in the Burj Hammoud area on the northern outskirts of Beirut on March 14, 2026.

A woman looks at a building where an apartment was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in the Burj Hammoud area on the northern outskirts of Beirut on March 14, 2026.

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Iranian and Lebanese health officials and Israeli authorities reported more than 1,300 people killed in Iran, 773 people in Lebanon and 12 civilians in Israel, as well as two Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon. Wednesday’s aircraft crash over Iraq brings the U.S. military death toll to 13, seven of whom were killed by enemy fire. Eight U.S. service members are severely injured, according to the Pentagon.

The humanitarian toll also deepened as the total number of people displaced by the fighting in Iran and Lebanon reached into the millions.

Here are further updates about the conflict.

To jump to a specific coverage topic, click on the links below:

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U.S. casualties | More war ahead

U.S. casualties rise and additional Marines head to Mideast

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Friday all six crew members died when their refueling aircraft went down over Iraq.

CENTCOM, which oversees the military’s Middle East operations, initially reported an unspecified incident involving two aircraft Thursday. It said the U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft was lost in western Iraq, while the other landed safely. It is investigating the circumstances but confirmed the “loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire.”

That brings the U.S. military death toll to 13, seven of whom were killed by enemy fire, according to the Pentagon.

NPR has also confirmed that an additional 2,200 U.S. Marines are heading to the Middle East.

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The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Okinawa, Japan, aboard the USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, will join an armada of ships taking part in the Iran war, a source told NPR on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The source did not specify what role the Marines will play.

The deployment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

— NPR’s National Security Desk

Officials brace for an end without a deal — and the risk of a “war routine”

A senior official in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations, told NPR they expected the war to last at least another week, and that Israeli leaders increasingly believe the U.S. and Israel will end the war unilaterally, without a negotiated agreement. In such a scenario, the official said, Iran and allied groups, including the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen, could establish a new normal of intermittent fire at Israel, prompting repeated Israeli retaliation.

The official said that kind of tit-for-tat exchange would leave Israelis living with an intolerable “war routine” even if the intensity of the conflict fades.

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The official also said Israel is not ruling out an expanded ground operation in southern Lebanon, but described Israel as holding back so far from striking broad civilian infrastructure, largely because the U.S. sees Lebanon as a partner.

— Daniel Estrin, Carrie Kahn

Arezou Rezvani contributed to this report from Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdish region.

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Video: Michigan Synagogue Attacker Killed Himself During Gunfight, Officials Say

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Video: Michigan Synagogue Attacker Killed Himself During Gunfight, Officials Say

new video loaded: Michigan Synagogue Attacker Killed Himself During Gunfight, Officials Say

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Michigan Synagogue Attacker Killed Himself During Gunfight, Officials Say

The man who rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday killed himself during a firefight with security guards, law enforcement officials said.

At approximately 12:20, Ghazali’s vehicle gets jammed between hallway walls and he begins firing through the windshield of his vehicle. At some point during the gunfight, Ghazali suffers a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. In the bed of the truck, we found large quantities of commercial-grade fireworks and several jugs of flammable liquid we believe to be gasoline, some of which has been consumed in the fire.

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The man who rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday killed himself during a firefight with security guards, law enforcement officials said.

By Jackeline Luna

March 13, 2026

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