DALLAS (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Texas have charged six more people with a new terrorism-related charge in the July shooting outside an immigration detention center near Dallas, and said six others are scheduled to enter guilty pleas in the case.
The indictment expands on previous charges and relies on President Trump’s recent declaration deeming the decentralized movement known as antifa a domestic terrorist organization. Trump has attributed political violence to antifa members.
The charges arise from the July 4 shooting outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, which resulted in the injury of a police officer. The charges include rioting, attempted murder, and violations involving weapons and explosives.
Prosecutors allege the group engaged in violent acts including throwing fireworks at the facility, vandalizing vehicles, and shooting at the police and correctional officers, injuring an officer in the neck; fortunately, he has since been released from the hospital.
The incident coincided with the Trump administration's intensified deportation efforts. Patrick McClain, an attorney representing defendant Zachary Evetts, has stated he has seen no evidence to support the government's view of the case, asserting that Evetts will plead not guilty at the upcoming arraignment on these new charges.
“Mr. Evetts has never been a member of anything like a ‘North Texas Antifa Cell,’ and from the evidence provided to us by the government so far, there is no evidence that such an organization ever existed,” McClain remarked.
Antifa, short for anti-fascists, is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term encompassing various far-left groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at protests.
