Dallas — DALLAS (AP) — Two people were arrested in Shooting in July An outside Texas immigration detention center faces new charges in the wake of President Donald Trump’s order last month to decentralize a movement known as Antifa. As a domestic terrorist organization.
Autumn Hill and Zachary Evetts were indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Worth on Wednesday on charges that include providing material support to terrorists and attempted murder of U.S. government officers and employees. Federal prosecutors accuse them of being members of the Antifa cell that planned the shooting.
Hale and Evetts were already among them 11 people face charges of attempted murder Related to the July 4 shooting outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, that left a police officer injured.
In an X post on Thursday about the new charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi called Antifa a “left-wing terrorist organization” and said, “They will be prosecuted as such.”
Short for “anti-fascists,” Antifa is not a single organization, but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning armed groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
The indictment stated that the attack began when a group of people wearing black clothes and masks, some carrying firearms and wearing protective shields, launched fireworks towards the center and vandalized vehicles and a guard shed. Then, when officers responded, one of the subjects shouted, “Get to the guns” and opened fire, striking an officer, according to the indictment.
The group brought 10 firearms to the July 4 attack, the indictment said.
Cody Cover, Hill’s attorney, said in an email statement that the new terrorism charge “could be interpreted by some as an attempt to appeal to a mob mentality rather than relying on the evidence and the law.”
Evetts’ attorney, Patrick McLean, said so far he sees no basis for any of the charges against his client.
The original charges filed over the summer say searches related to the attack found items including anti-government materials and flyers containing political messages, but those documents did not mention Antifa.
Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. There is no domestic equivalent to that list, in part because of the broad First Amendment protections enjoyed by organizations operating within the United States.
The shooting occurred on July 4 Trump The country’s administration intensified deportation operations. Days after the shooting, a man showed up carrying an assault rifle Dozens of shots were fired on federal agents and a US Border Patrol facility in McAllen near the Mexico border, wounding a police officer. The authorities shot and killed the attacker.