A terror hit? With expletives, cops working Prairieland ICE shooting found guns
The wide-eyed Johnson County law enforcement officers who stopped and searched a minivan in Alvarado near an ICE detention center after a police lieutenant was shot there on July 4 were astonished.
Inside the vehicle that Megan Morris drove, the officers found a pistol, a Sig Sauer P226, a rifle, a US Arms Patriot 15, multiple magazines and body armor, according to testimony and evidence presented by federal prosecutors in the trial of nine defendants.
“You made an exclamation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith observed in a Fort Worth courtroom on Thursday while questioning Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Karl Parsons. “What did you say?”
“I said, ‘What the [expletive],” Parsons testified.
Another suspect was spotted lying in grass near the detention center close to a rifle case and with a two-way radio and headphones used typically at a gun range, according to testimony.
The officers involved in the arrest of some of the suspects immediately after the shooting quickly formed the view that a terror hit on the Prairieland Detention Center had occurred.
“It seemed like a coordinated attack on the facility,” Parsons testified.
The joint trial of nine defendants is underway in U.S. District Court after the Dallas-Fort Worth U.S. Attorney’s Office sought their indictment, in the first case against what the government alleges is a group of violent antifa cell members.
The defendants’ attorneys refer to their clients as noise demonstrators and argue that they wanted, in a protest, to bring hope to immigrants detained by ICE. The indictment represents an attempt to prosecute citizens for their political beliefs, defense attorneys have argued.
Warren St. John, who represents Morris, said his client was present at the detention center but was not involved in a crime.
“She didn’t get out of the van one time,” St. John said in his opening statement.
The assailant who shot Lt. Thomas Gross, federal prosecutors allege, was Benjamin Song, a 32-year-old former Marine Corps reservist. Gross was shot after he responded to a call at the ICE detention center and drew his gun when he saw a person dressed in black tactical gear running away, according to Gross’ testimony.
Defense attorneys have suggested in cross-examination of government witnesses that Song may have been justified by defense of a third party because he believed that he was protecting the running person.
That Gross drew his pistol was “extremely reasonable” under the set of facts, FBI Special Agent Clark Wiethorn, the case agent, testified.
Gross was shot in his upper shoulder, and the projectile left the back of his neck and took a path through tissue and muscle, but avoided vital organs, Gross testified.
Thirteen people wearing black clothes were at Prairieland at the time of the shooting late on July 4, 2025, Wiethorn testified.
Some ignited fireworks and others spoke from a bullhorn or spray-painted anti-ICE phrases on vehicles and an unoccupied guard booth.
Beyond Song, the defendants are Autumn Hill (referred to as Cameron Arnold in the indictment), Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Meagan Morris (referred to as Bradford Morris in the indictment), Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto and Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada.
Song is charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm during, in relation to and in furtherance of a crime of violence. Evetts, Hill, Morris and Rueda are charged with aiding and abetting.
Song, Batten, Evetts, Hill, Morris, Rueda, and Elizabeth and Ines Soto also were indicted on charges including rioting, providing material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to use and carry an explosive.
Rueda and Sanchez Estrada also are charged with conspiracy to conceal documents, and Sanchez Estrada is charged with corruptly concealing a document or record.
Five additional defendants pleaded guilty in November to the charge of providing material support to terrorists. Some of those defendants are expected to testify during the trial.
The jurors were chosen Monday after the first attempt at jury selection ended in a mistrial last week. Testimony in the case began Tuesday.
The trial is expected to last about two and a half weeks, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman has said.
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 8:39 AM.
