An Alvarado officer was injured in the July 4 attack, officials said.
ALVARADO, Texas — A federal grand jury indicted nine alleged “Antifa cell operatives” in connection with the July “ambush” of a North Texas ICE detention facility, officials announced Friday.
Seven other people were “charged by information” with offenses including rioting, using weapons and explosives, providing material support to terrorists, obstruction, and attempted murder, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Officers were called to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, about 30 miles south of Fort Worth, on July 4 about a group of people wearing all black who shot fireworks toward the center, officials said. An Alvarado police officer who responded to the scene was shot in the neck, taken to an area hospital, treated, and released. No employees at the detention center were hurt, officials say.
The new, 12-count indictment this week charges Cameron Arnold, aka Autumn Hill, Zachary Evetts, Benjamin Song, Savanna Batten, Bradford Morris, aka Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto, and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada with multiple offenses for their alleged roles in the attack, officials say. They’re set for arraignment Dec. 3, according to a press release.
Arnold and Evetts were previously indicted on what FBI Director Kash Patel said were first antifa-related terrorism charges brought after President Donald Trump’s order to designate antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, according to FBI Director Kash Patel and the Associated Press.
Antifa, short for “anti-fascist,” is a term used to describe far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity, as the Associated Press reports.
An information filed this week also charges Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Susan Kent, Rebecca Morgan, Lynette Sharp, and John Thomas with providing material support to terrorists, prosecutors say.
Seth Sikes was also charged in October with providing material support to terrorists, officials say. Guilty plea hearings for Baumann, Gibson, Thomas, Sharp, and Sikes will be held next week, with Morgan set to plead guilty the following week, according to a press release.
If convicted, Song, Arnold, Evetts, Morris, and Rueda each face a minimum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, federal officials say. Batten, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto each face a minimum of 10 years up to 50 years in federal prison if convicted, while Sanchez Estrada faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count, according to a press release.
Baumann, Gibson, Kent, Morgan, Sharp, Thomas and Sikes face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, officials say.
What happened during the July 4 ‘ambush’ at the Prairieland Detention Center
On July 4, a group of 10-12 people wearing all black shot fireworks toward the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, about 30 miles south of Fort Worth, according to an affidavit.
An Alvarado police officer who responded to the scene was shot in the neck, taken to an area hospital, treated, and released. No employees at the detention center were hurt, officials say.
Eleven of the suspects fled the scene after the incident but were later arrested by responding officers.
Among those was Benjamin Hanil Song, who prosecutors describe as the leader of the group and who was arrested more than a week after the attack at a Far North Dallas apartment complex after a manhunt that prompted a Blue Alert.