Sentencing resumes in Texas detention center shooting case

Six defendants were back before federal judges in Fort Worth on July 1 as sentencing resumed in the Prairieland Detention Center shooting case. The previous week, eight other defendants received a combined 450 years in prison, including former Marine Corps reservist Benjamin Hanil Song, who got 100 years.

The case began with a July 4, 2025 attack outside the detention center in Alvarado, Texas, near Dallas. People in black military-style clothing launched fireworks at the facility, sprayed graffiti on vehicles and a guard structure, and tried to draw officers outside, federal authorities said. An Alvarado police officer, Thomas Gross, was shot in the neck and survived. Investigators also found body armor, radios, AR-style rifles and a Faraday bag at the scene.

Prosecutors said the group used Signal chat rooms to plan the assault and share reconnaissance and portrayed the defendants as tied to Antifa. Defense lawyers denied those links, while relatives of some defendants called the prison terms startlingly harsh. In March, a federal jury in Fort Worth convicted nine defendants after a 12-day trial that featured more than 45 witnesses and more than 210 exhibits. Together with prior guilty pleas, 16 people had been brought to justice in the case.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who helped impose the earlier sentences, said the event was not a protest but “an assault on democracy.” Last week's sentencing was the first for defendants affiliated with Antifa after President Donald Trump's September 2025 executive order designating the group as a domestic terrorist organization, the Justice Department said. Evidence at trial showed Song acquired firearms, distributed them, and recruited members at gun ranges and combat sessions, prosecutors said. He bought four of the guns tied to the ambush.

On July 1, six defendants who had pleaded guilty instead of going to trial faced possible sentences of up to 15 years. The June 23 hearing also left those present at Prairieland that night jointly responsible for $4,408.95 in restitution to the detention center, including Nathan Baumann and Seth Sikes.