Anarchist militants allegedly launched an “ambush” outside an ICE detention center near Fort Worth on July 4. Now, officials have published their identities, and The Dallas Express has found their mugshots.
The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas charged 11 suspects for the attack, in which a gunman shot a police officer in the neck, as The Dallas Express previously reported.
Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson called it “a planned ambush with the intent to kill ICE corrections officers.”
Militants in black body armor allegedly surrounded the ICE Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, south of Fort Worth, late on July 4. Gunmen took their positions and shot an Alvarado police officer in the neck, and fired at ICE corrections officers.
The Suspects
Federal officials are charging 10 suspects each with three counts of attempted murder of federal officers and three counts of firing a gun in a violent crime. An eleventh suspect was charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy for allegedly attempting to destroy evidence.
The suspects are currently detained in the Johnson County Jail, and they all face charges including attempted murder of a federal officer, discharging a firearm in a violent crime, aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon, and terrorism. Across the board, the latter two charges both carry $5 million bonds.
- Cameron Arnold is also known as “Autumn Hill,” according to the criminal complaint. Jail records list Hill’s sex as male, and he is from Dallas.
- Bradford Morris is, similarly, also known as “Meagan Morris.” Jail records list Morris’ sex as male. According to the criminal complaint, Morris is from Dallas.
- Joy Gibson, of Dallas.
- Elizabeth Soto, of Fort Worth.
- Ines Soto, of Fort Worth.
- Savanna Batten, of Fort Worth.
- Maricela Rueda, of Fort Worth.
- Seth Sikes, of Kennedale.
- Zachary Evetts, of Waxahachie.
- Nathan Baumann, of College Station.
Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Baumann, Rueda, Sikes, Gibson, Batten, and the Sotos near the detention center soon after the attack, according to the criminal complaint.
“They were dressed in black, military-style clothing, some had on body armor, some were covered in mud, some were armed, and some had radios.” Baumann was reportedly “wet” and “covered with burs,” suggesting he was “crawling around in the woods.”
Soon after, deputies also pulled over Morris’ van, where they saw weapons including a pistol and AR-15 rifle in “plain view,” the complaint read. They arrested Morris, then found a “loaded magazine” for the pistol, another AR-15, a hand-held radio, a ballistic helmet, and two “Kevlar ballistic style vests.”
The next day, police searched Morris’ house on 56th Street in south Dallas – a “staging” location for the attack, according to the complaint. There, they found Arnold, who another suspect said was at the ICE facility during the shooting. Police also found fireworks, spray paint, three “body-armor vests,” and nine more guns.
On Monday, the FBI followed Daniel Rolando Sanchez, charged in a separate complaint, from his home in Garland to an apartment in Denton. The FBI searched the apartment and found “anti-government propaganda” calling for “insurrectionary anarchy.”
At multiple stages in the investigation, officers found anarchist propaganda, including a flag that read “resist fascism, fight oligarchy” and flyers that said “fight ICE terror with class war” and “free all political prisoners.”
Larson warned officials will find anyone who attacks law enforcement, and prosecute them with “the toughest criminal statutes and penalties that we have available.”