They Shot a Cop in the Neck Outside a Texas ICE Facility. A Federal Court Just Handed the Cell 450 Years.

Just before 11 p.m. on July 4, 2025, roughly a dozen people in black clothing and body armor crept toward the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. They pushed a wagon of fireworks at the building, spray-painted “ICE PIG” and “TRAITOR” on vehicles, and lured officers outside. When Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross pulled up to respond, a voice on body-camera footage said “get to the rifles” — and gunfire opened up from the tree line.

A round struck Lt. Gross in the neck, tore through his trapezius, and exited his back. He was airlifted to a hospital and survived. Prosecutors said the man who fired was Benjamin Hanil Song, a 32-year-old former Marine reservist who had armed and trained the group. Federal prosecutors called it not a protest but a premeditated terror attack by a self-styled North Texas antifa cell.

On June 23, 2026, after a three-week trial and March convictions, a federal court in Fort Worth handed down the sentences: 100 years for Song, 70 for his lieutenant, 50 each for five others, and 30 for an eighth — a combined 450 years. It is the first sentencing of defendants the government links to antifa since President Trump’s executive order designating the movement a domestic terrorist organization. This page lays out what happened, who got what, and where the case is genuinely contested — source by source.

• 450 years — combined federal prison time handed to the eight defendants sentenced June 23, 2026 · Source: DOJ (NDTX); WFAA; RedState
• 100 years — for ringleader Benjamin Hanil Song, convicted of attempted murder of an officer plus terrorism and firearms counts · Source: DOJ; CBS Texas
• Shot in the neck — Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross was struck during the ambush, airlifted out, and survived; released within 24 hours · Source: NBC 5 DFW; KERA
• July 4, 2025 — date of the coordinated nighttime attack on the Prairieland ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas · Source: DOJ; ICE
• 1st antifa case — first sentencing of defendants tied to antifa since Trump's Sept. 2025 domestic-terror designation of the movement · Source: DOJ; Legal Insurrection
• 8 more pending — Ines Soto (convicted at trial) plus seven who pleaded guilty to material support await sentencing · Source: CBS Texas; Fox 4

According to the government’s case, the attack was staged, not spontaneous. At roughly 10:37 p.m. on July 4, 2025, about eleven people in black clothing gathered near the Prairieland ICE Detention Center. They set off fireworks, defaced vehicles and a guard structure with slogans like “ICE PIG,” and drew officers out of the building. ICE called 911 at 10:58 p.m.; Alvarado police arrived a minute later. As officers stepped into the open, a shooter in a green mask opened fire from a wooded area — after body-worn-camera audio caught the words “get to the rifles.”

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The shooter was Benjamin Hanil Song, prosecutors said — a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist who had acquired firearms, distributed them to co-defendants, and run training at gun ranges and combat sessions. The round that hit Lt. Thomas Gross entered his neck, passed through his trapezius muscle, and exited his upper back. He was airlifted to a hospital and released within a day. No detainees escaped; the attack failed in its apparent aim of breaching the facility, but it left an officer shot and a federal terrorism case in motion.

“Get to the rifles.”

Words captured on police body-camera audio moments before the shooting, per trial evidence (DOJ / NBC 5 DFW)

The case was prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Defendants faced a stack of terrorism-related counts — rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy involving explosives, obstruction, and, for Song, the attempted murder of a federal officer and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. After an initial mistrial in February 2026 over a defense attorney’s t-shirt, the retrial ran roughly three weeks; the government called dozens of witnesses, and the defense rested without calling any of its own. In March 2026, the jury convicted.

Sentencing came on June 23, 2026. Song received 100 years; his closest associate, Maricela Rueda, got 70. Five co-defendants — Cameron Arnold (a.k.a. Autumn Hill), Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Bradford Morris (a.k.a. Meagan Morris), and Elizabeth Soto — were each sentenced to 50 years. Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada, convicted on document-concealment counts, drew 30. That is the 450-year combined total the DOJ and outlets from WFAA to RedState reported. A ninth trial defendant, Ines Soto, and seven others who pleaded guilty to material support remain to be sentenced.

What makes this case a national marker is the label attached to it. The Justice Department described the defendants as members of a “North Texas antifa cell” with anti-ICE and anti-government beliefs, and cast the sentences as the first to follow President Trump’s September 2025 executive order designating antifa a domestic terrorist organization. Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) had earlier framed the original charges as the first federal terrorism counts tied to alleged antifa activity. The government’s position is straightforward: this was organized, armed political violence aimed at federal officers, and it should be charged as terrorism.

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The load-bearing facts here are not seriously disputed: an officer was shot, the attack was coordinated and armed, and a jury convicted after a full trial. Where the argument lives is in the framing — whether tying the whole cell to a movement-wide “domestic terrorist” designation, and stacking decades-long sentences on material-support counts, is proportionate justice or an expansive use of terrorism law against political dissidents. That is the fault line every account of this case runs along, and an honest page names it rather than papering over it.

Critics and defense supporters frame the prosecution as overreach. Outlets on the left, including Common Dreams, cast it as a “new Red Scare,” pointing out that one defendant drew 30 years on document-concealment counts rather than for firing a weapon, and arguing the antifa-terrorism framing sweeps protest activity into the most serious category the federal code offers. Song’s mother, after the sentence, said her son “accepted full responsibility for what actually happened” but would “never accept responsibility for a lie.” Defense lawyers maintain the gathering was meant as a demonstration that turned violent, not a planned terror operation.

None of that erases the core facts, and our editorial floor is that the facts come first. A police officer was shot in the neck. The attack was armed and coordinated. A jury heard the evidence and convicted. Whether 100 years for the shooter and 50 for those who supplied the cell is the right number is a sentencing judgment reasonable people can argue over — but the conduct the government proved is exactly the kind of premeditated violence against law enforcement that draws long federal time, with or without the antifa label attached.

On July 4, 2025, an armed group ambushed a Texas ICE facility and shot a police officer in the neck. On June 23, 2026, a federal jury’s verdict translated into 450 combined years of prison — 100 for the shooter who organized it, 50 each for the members who armed and supported it, 30 for the man convicted of concealing evidence. The Justice Department calls it the first antifa terrorism case to reach sentencing; critics call the terrorism framing a stretch. Both can be argued. What is settled is that Lt. Thomas Gross was shot, the attack was coordinated, and a jury convicted. Eight more defendants — including one convicted at trial and seven who pleaded guilty — are still awaiting their sentences. We’ll track those, and any appeals.

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