ALVARADO, Texas — A 12th suspect has been charged in the shooting of an Alvarado police officer in July during an “ambush” at the Prairieland Detention Center, officials say.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Benjamin Hanil Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist, joined 11 others in the execution of a organized attack against police officers at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in North Texas — about 30 miles south of Fort Worth — that night.
Officials have charged Song with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents and three counts of discharging a firearm during a violent crime. Officials say Song was not present during the shooting, but is accused in the complaint of having bought four of the guns found in connection with the shooting, including two AR-style rifles.
Song has still not been apprehended. The FBI has deemed him a wanted individual and considers him armed and dangerous.
Eleven of the suspects charged Monday fled the scene but were later arrested by responding officers. However, officials say Song was not located by police that night. Location data associated with Song’s phone reportedly shows it was within several hundred meters of the detention center until after dark on July 5.
Additionally, DFW Airport security footage shows a man believed to be Song in a white Mercedes owned by one of his relatives. Officials said that the vehicle was later found on the same block as the residence of another suspect, Bradford Morris.
“The swift response of nearly 70 law enforcement officers to the site of the shooting hemmed in several of the attackers,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy E. Larson in a statement. “The quick action and professionalism of our state and local law enforcement officers in the immediate aftermath of the shooting resulted in the prompt capture of ten of the assailants. Though Song escaped the scene by hiding overnight, he will be relentlessly pursued until he is in custody.”
In a Monday evening news conference, local and federal officials called the shooting a coordinated attack on law enforcement and ICE.
“It was a planned ambush with an attempt to kill ICE correction officers … seemed designed to draw ICE personnel outside the facility, and it worked,” said Acting United States Attorney Nancy Larson.
The officer who had been shot in the neck was flown to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, treated, and released, officials said.
No employees at the detention center were harmed, officials added.
Zachary Evetts, of Waxahachie; Joy Gibson, of Dallas; Bradford Morris, of Dallas; Maricela Rueda, of Fort Worth; Seth Sikes, of Kennedale; Elizabeth Soot, of Fort Worth; and Ines Soto, of Fort Worth, all face criminal charges, including attempted murder of a federal officer, discharging a firearm during a violent crime, terrorism and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer.
An 11th suspect was arrested in connection with an attack on an ICE detention facility south of Fort Worth, according to a recently unsealed federal filing.
The 11th suspect, Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada, is accused of knowingly and willfully altering, destroying or concealing a record, document or other object with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding, according to the criminal complaint against Sanchez Estrada.
He is also accused of conspiring with the other defendants to launch a “coordinated attack” against law enforcement in Alvarado.
The Alvarado City Council is set to meet behind closed doors to discuss the incident on Thursday. The mayor said the local police chief will provide an update to council members at that time.
