FORT WORTH — A federal jury began deliberating Thursday in the domestic terrorism trial of nine defendants charged in connection with the nonfatal shooting of an Alvarado police officer outside the Prairieland ICE Detention Center last July 4 - a case the Justice Department calls the first-ever federal prosecution targeting "antifa" as a terrorist organization.
Jurors are weighing the case at the Eldon B. Mahon U.S. Courthouse in Fort Worth. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman told jurors it may take "some time" to reach a unanimous verdict on each count for each defendant.
During closing arguments Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith told jurors that defendant Benjamin Song organized what the government describes as a deliberate ambush of law enforcement outside the Prairieland facility. "Song planned an ambush, planned the confrontation," Smith argued. "And everyone else had a role in covering it up."
Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross testified earlier in the trial that he believed he was walking into an ambush when he arrived at Prairieland just before 11 p.m. on July 4 in response to a disturbance call. Body camera footage showed that as Gross got out of his car, a person in a green mask - whom prosecutors allege was Song - shouted "get to the rifles." Within seconds, gunshots rang out and Gross fell to the ground, shot once in the neck with the bullet exiting through his back.
Defense attorneys countered that the group brought fireworks to the facility to shoot them off in solidarity with detainees inside - not as an act of aggression toward law enforcement.
The nine defendants on trial are Savanna Batten, Meagan Morris, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, Elizabeth and Ines Soto, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Maricela Rueda, and Benjamin Song. A total of 19 people have been arrested in connection with the July 4 incident.
Charges against the nine include attempted murder, aiding terrorists, and weapons offenses. Both the prosecution and all nine defense teams rested their cases Tuesday - the 11th day of trial - with the defense presenting no witnesses of their own.
The government's evidence included anarchist literature owned by the defendants, encrypted Signal group messages allegedly detailing planning before and after the protest, and testimony from co-defendants who took plea deals.
Judge Pittman noted that despite the case being widely described as the first terrorism charges brought against "antifa," the word itself appears only once in the government's 91-page proposed jury charge. At one point, Pittman questioned whether the term needed to be included at all, asking the prosecutor, "Whether it's antifa or the Methodist Women's Auxiliary of Weatherford, why does it matter?"
Lt. Gross survived the shooting and has since returned to duty. No verdict has been announced.
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