Three Huntsville Men Are Indicted on Federal Gun Charges. One Is Accused of Writing He’d “Gun Down an ICE Agent on Sight.”
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Alabama has indicted three men linked to a Huntsville apartment, Levi Belcher, 18, Anthony Slota, 28, and Tadashi Ereckson, 38, on firearms counts. The Washington Examiner, WAFF and 1819 News report that one of them, Belcher, is also charged with sending an interstate threat.
The threat, according to the FBI as reported by Yellowhammer, was a reply on Threads: “Don’t care and also didn’t ask. Id gun down an ice agent on sight.” All three are presumed innocent.
- 3men indictedin the Northern District of Alabama on federal firearms counts — Washington Examiner, 1819 News
- 2counts against Belcheran unregistered National Firearms Act weapon and an interstate threat — Yellowhammer News
- 23D-printed pistolsfound in the car at the Sept. 10 stop, per the complaint — Yellowhammer News
- 5 / 10years maximumfor the threat count and the firearm count, respectively — Yellowhammer News
- Dec. 18FBI tip2025 report to the FBI's National Threat Operations Center — 1819 News
Belcher faces a two-count indictment: possession of an unregistered National Firearms Act weapon and interstate transmission of a threatening communication, Yellowhammer reports. Slota and Ereckson are each charged with one count of possessing an unregistered NFA weapon. Yellowhammer lists the maximums as five years for the threat and ten for the firearm.
U.S. Attorney Phil Williams said his office will prosecute credible threats against law enforcement. Magistrate Judge Herman N. Johnson Jr. signed the earlier complaints, which were sworn by FBI Special Agent Jessi Ann Mann and ATF Special Agent Ryan Brandon, per Yellowhammer.
The case began with a post. An individual reported a Belcher social-media post to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center on Dec. 18, 2025, according to 1819 News. The Examiner describes Belcher as a runaway teenager from Tennessee who had been tracked since December and whose father reported him missing the following month; Yellowhammer, citing the FBI affidavit, places the father’s home in Mount Juliet.
On Sept. 10, per WAFF and the complaint as reported by Yellowhammer, ATF agents watched Belcher and Slota in Decatur wearing body armor and carrying rifles. Huntsville police stopped their car and, the complaint says, found two 3D-printed pistols and hundreds of rounds. Agents then searched the apartment, where the Examiner reports finding anti-government writings and a rifle marked “anti fascist.” 1819 News reports handwritten notes that read “let’s stomp some Nazis” and referred to Fred Hampton.
The Examiner’s headline subject is Slota, and the distinction matters. Slota is charged with one firearm count. The Threads reply is attributed by the FBI to Belcher, not to him. What the Examiner reports about Slota’s own posts, that trans-identifying people need guns, which echoes its headline, and what it describes as a history of endorsing violence against political enemies, comes from the Examiner’s review of archived pages. It is reporting, not charged conduct, and he has not been convicted of anything.
Nor is this a terrorism prosecution on paper. The Examiner calls it a “terrorism inquiry” and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved, but the counts reported are firearms and threats. Yellowhammer adds that a Nashville federal field office circulated an officer-safety bulletin in August, and that Belcher had posted in June about tracking an ICE vehicle in Huntsville.
“My office will take every available step to prosecute credible threats against law enforcement.”
U.S. Attorney Phil Williams — via Yellowhammer News and 1819 News
Levi Belcher — 18; two counts, including the interstate threat.
Anthony Slota — 28; one count; in custody on Alabama gun charges, per the Examiner.
Tadashi Ereckson — 38; one count; the apartment was his, per Yellowhammer.
Phil Williams — U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Alabama.
WAFF reported on Oct. 7 that the three were due before a federal judge later this month. No pleas or trial date had been reported when this was written, and we found no statement from the defendants’ lawyers. Whether the government can prove the threat was a true threat, and not online bluster, is a question a court will decide.
Three Huntsville men face federal firearms counts, and one is also charged over a threat to shoot an ICE agent. The “terrorism” label is the Washington Examiner’s, not the indictment’s, and all three are presumed innocent.
