WASHINGTON (TNND) — Two alleged Antifa members involved in the July 4 attack on a Texas ICE facility have been indicted by a federal grand jury for terrorism-related charges, marking the first federal terrorism case against someone affiliated with Antifa ideology.
“For the first time ever, the FBI has arrested anarchist violent extremists and charged these Antifa-aligned individuals with material support to terrorism,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. “This was a planned and coordinated terrorist attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where armed extremists tried to murder U.S. officers on July 4th.”
Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts are charged with providing material support for terrorism, attempting to murder federal and assisting officers and discharging firearms during attempted murders. Their indictments come just a month after President Donald Trump declared Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The grand jury indictment documents say that Antifa, which advocates for revolting against fascists and is rooted in “autonomous Marxist ideology,” lacks centralized leadership. In charging documents, federal prosecutors characterized Antifa as being a “militant enterprise made up of individuals and small groups” with the goal of influencing U.S. policy and the government’s conduct through “intimidation and coercion.”
“We are executing under President Trump’s new authorities at record speed,” Patel wrote on X. “To date, the FBI has made over 20 arrests tied to this case and related Antifa networks. No one gets to harm law enforcement. Not on our watch.”
Arnold and Evetts were among a group of at least a dozen individuals that ambushed the ICE facility on July 4, an attack which was planned over an encrypted messaging app. Late in the evening of July 4, the Antifa aligned gang was shooting fireworks and spray-painting vehicles at the detention facility. Two correctional officers approach the group; while a police officer arrived in response to 911 calls made about the commotion. After exiting his vehicle, a member of the group began shooting from across the street from a line of trees. He hit the officer in the neck. The officer survived.
Arnold is accused of initiating the eruption of gunfire from his group, yelling, “Get to the rifles,” after the police officer stepped out of his vehicle.
“Seconds later, coconspirator-1 [Arnold] opened fire on the officers, striking the Alvarado officer in the neck area as the unarmed correctional officers ducked and ran for cover. The wounded officer fell to the ground but was able to return a few shots. Coconspirator-1 continued to fire additional rounds until his rifle jammed. The attackers then left the scene,” the indictment reads.