On the evening of May 7, 2018, Godinez turned himself in to federal agents after his attorney said surrender arrangements were made with authorities. According to some sources, the terms of surrender were worked out during conversations that had occurred over the weekend. On May 8, 2018 Godinez was charged in a federal criminal complaint with the assault of a Federal Officer with a dangerous and deadly weapon in the shooting of an ATF agent in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood as undercover law enforcement agents conducted a middle-of-the-night “covert” operation. The charges were announced by John R. Lausch Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Celinez Nunez, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; and Eddie T. Johnson, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. On May 16, 2018, Godinez, 28, was formally indicted on a single count of assaulting an ATF agent with a deadly weapon. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Eichenseer said footage showed Godinez, driving around his block in the Back of the Yards neighborhood shortly before the shooting, "“essentially patrolling the neighborhood, presumably on the lookout for rival gang members.”" Godinez’s lawyer, Lawrence Hyman, argued that the evidence against Godinez was flimsy. Authorities had no evidence showing that Godinez even had a gun that night, he said. Hyman called the allegations that Godinez shot at someone a half a block away "“an absurdity.”" He also suggested the agent may have been struck by return fire from his colleagues.