By Jasper Ward
WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) – A jury convicted nine people on Friday for their involvement in a shooting at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas last year, the Justice Department said.
Eight of the nine defendants were found guilty of providing material support to terrorists, rioting, conspiring to use and carry explosives, and using explosives during a riot, local media reported.
The conviction followed a 12-day trial in Texas.
The defendants were charged for their roles in a non-fatal shooting of a police officer at the immigration facility on July 4 in Alvarado, Texas.
The defendants, who authorities said were dressed in black “military-style” clothing with head and face coverings when they carried out the attack on the facility, have been described the Trump administration as members of the antifa movement, which was designated a domestic terrorist organization by President Donald Trump last year.
The case was the first time federal prosecutors filed terrorism charges targeting antifa, a largely unstructured, far-left movement whose followers broadly aim to confront those they view as authoritarian or racist.
Following the conviction, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said this will not be the last case of its kind under the Trump administration.
ICE Director Todd M. Lyons welcomed the conviction, saying the summer attack by the defendants was violent in nature and “an abhorrent way for antifa terrorists to ‘protest.'”
The defendants are Cameron Arnold, Zachary Evetts, Benjamin Song, Savanna Batten, Bradford Morris, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada.
Lawyers for eight of the nine defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment
“We are thankful that the jury could see through the Government’s fear mongering antifa ‘ambush’ narrative,” said Cody Cofer, a lawyer for Arnold, the lead defendant in the case.
“We are afraid that our client’s guilty verdicts for Riot and related charges resulted from a compromise during deliberations or failure to consider our client’s individual conduct.”
Cofer expressed an intent to appeal the case.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)
