A collection of just shy of two dozen people furious at U.S. government efforts to deport illegal immigrants gathered outside a detention center in rural Johnson County on the symbolically significant July 4 to carry out a violent rebuke, prosecutors described to a jury in Fort Worth on Tuesday at a joint trial for nine defendants.
With a rifle, Benjamin Song, a former Marine Corps reservist, fired upon Alvarado police Lt. Thomas Gross just after Gross arrived at the center, prosecutors allege. A projectile entered his upper shoulder, left the back of his neck and took a path through tissue and muscle, but avoided vital organs.
Song confessed to three co-defendants, who have pleaded guilty, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith said in the government’s opening statement. The accomplices will testify at the trial, Smith forecast.
“They’re going to tell it to you,” Smith said of the expected testimony on Song’s admission.
Defense attorneys who represent eight of the nine defendants offered in their openings a radically different account of evidence they said would fall short of establishing a sophisticated conspiracy to commit violence.
Rather, many of the defense attorneys asserted, their clients intended to participate in nothing more than a noise demonstration to bring hope to detainees. One is a mechanical engineer; another operates a benign book club, the defense attorneys said.
Defense attorney Phillip Hayes, who represents Song, reserved his opening statement for a time later in the trial.
The indictment represents an attempt to prosecute citizens for their political beliefs, defense attorneys have argued.
Law enforcement officers escort nine defendants indicted in connection to the shooting of a police officer outside a North Texas ICE detention center from the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Worth on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. A jury for their trial was selected Monday in the second attempt after the judge declared a mistrial during jury selection last week. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
Defense attorney Warren St. John, who represents Meagan 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.
Beyond Song and Morris, who is referred to as Bradford Morris in the indictment, the defendants are Autumn Hill, referred to as Cameron Arnold in the indictment, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto and Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada.
Gross took the witness stand for the government, recalling being shot, falling to the ground and returning fire at a moving silhouette.
The emotional toll of the shootings continues, the lieutenant testified.
“It’s a day I’m going to have to live with for the rest of my life,” Gross said.
The trial is to continue on Wednesday with the government’s case.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 10:42 PM.
Emerson Clarridge covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He works days and reports on law enforcement affairs in Tarrant County. He previously was a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald and the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York.
At times, the discussion on Monday inside a federal district courtroom in Fort Worth sounded as if it was from an AM radio talk show, with callers chiming in on hot-button political matters like guns, terrorism and antifa.
At one point, the host, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, asked a mostly attentive audience whether anyone believed transgender people are more likely to be violent. A woman shared her view that mental illness was likely in play. No one else raised their hand.
One participant was less engaged. Prospective Juror No. 42 fell asleep.
But rather than passionate fuel for a radio broadcast, the responses were from prospective jurors on subjects at the center of a trial that is underway in Fort Worth in which nine defendants have been indicted in connection with the July 4 shooting of a police lieutenant outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Johnson County.
The hunt for a fair and impartial jury began anew after the first effort to impanel a jury was halted last week when Judge Pittman declared a mistrial in the case because a defense attorney, while questioning potential jurors, wore a T-shirt on which there were photos of Civil Rights Era-protesters.
Law enforcement agents stand outside the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Worth on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. A second attempt of the trial of nine defendants indicted in connection to the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside a North Texas ICE detention center last year began Monday. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
Pittman concluded that attorney MarQuetta Clayton wore the shirt in an attempt to visually equate the civil rights movement to the Prairieland Detention Facility shooting, a position perhaps appropriate for argument to the jury, the judge said, but improper to deliver via clothing to panel members in jury selection.
Clayton wore the shirt under a blazer.
Pittman himself handled questioning in the second attempt at selecting a jury after offering the U.S. Attorney’s Office and defense attorneys an opportunity to suggest questions.
A 14-member jury was sworn in on Monday afternoon. Opening statements are expected on Tuesday morning.
Prosecutors have 61 potential witnesses. The trial is likely to take about two and a half weeks.
Pittman asked whether any of the prospective jurors held strong feelings about immigration enforcement or antifa, and whether, if they did, the panel members would only consider evidence from the trial in verdict deliberation and set aside political sentiments.
Law enforcement escort nine defendants indicted in connection to the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside a North Texas ICE detention center last year from the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Worth on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. A second attempt of their trial began Monday after the judge declared a mistrial during jury selection in the previous trial. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
The case’s top count is attempted murder. Defense attorneys suggest the culpability of each defendant is in question.
Although much of the activity outside the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado was recorded on video, the defendants’ use of monikers in encrypted written messages in advance of the shooting, avoidance of cellphones that would indicate their location and employment of other methods to maintain “op-sec” has stymied the connection of behavior to an individual defendant, the government has suggested.
The defendants’ attorneys refer to their clients as protesters. The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office describe them as attackers and domestic terrorists aligned with antifa.
Some ignited fireworks, others spoke from a bullhorn, still others spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on vehicles and an unoccupied guard booth.
Supporters of the nine defendants indicted in connection to the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside a North Texas ICE detention center last year chant across the street from the federal courthouse downtown Fort Worth on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. A second attempt of the trial began Monday after the judge declared a mistrial during jury selection in the previous trial. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
One of the defendants, Benjamin Song, a 32-year-old former Marine Corps reservist who associates described to authorities as a cult-like ringleader who opposes the government on immigration enforcement and on other matters, shot Alvarado Police Department Lt. Thomas Gross, authorities allege.
The lieutenant suffered one gunshot wound that entered near his shoulder and exited his back.
Song was the only non-law enforcement shooter, the government alleges. He is accused of firing 11 rounds from a rifle. Gross returned fire with three rounds.
Song and the other defendants were motivated by the position that the migrants who are detained at the ICE facility are political prisoners, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith asserted at an earlier hearing in the case.
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.
Law enforcement agents stand outside the federal courthouse in downtown Fort Worth on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. A second attempt of the trial of nine defendants indicted in connection to the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside a North Texas ICE detention center last year began Monday. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
Emerson Clarridge covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He works days and reports on law enforcement affairs in Tarrant County. He previously was a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald and the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York.
