By JAMIE STENGLE
DALLAS (AP) — Five people pleaded guilty Wednesday to terrorism-related charges after they were accused of supporting antifa in a July shooting that wounded a police officer outside a Texas immigration detention center.
The charges brought by the Justice Department followed President Donald Trump signing an order that designated the decentralized movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. Trump has blamed antifa for political violence.
Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
FBI Director Kash Patel has previously said the charges in Texas are the first time a material support to terrorism charge has targeted antifa. A police officer was injured in the July 4 shooting near Dallas outside the Prairieland Detention Center, where federal prosecutors say an antifa cell carried out an attack that included gunfire and fireworks aimed toward the facility.
Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Seth Sikes, Lynette Sharp and John Thomas each entered guilty pleas to one count of providing material support to terrorists in federal court in Fort Worth. They face up to 15 years in prison at sentencing.
Sharp’s attorney, Erin Kelley, said entering the plea was “step one in a long process” before the sentence is actually determined. Lawyers for the other four defendants either did not immediately return messages Wednesday or comment.
Cases against others also charged in the shooting remain ongoing.
According to court documents, one member of the group outside the facility yelled “get to the rifles” and then opened fire as officers responded, striking an Alvarado Police Department officer in the neck area. He fell to the ground but was able to return a few shots. Prosecutors say more rounds were then fired at the wounded officer and an unarmed DHS correction officer.
Court documents say Gibson, Baumann and Sikes were among those who were present the night of the attack and were arrested shortly after, while Sharp and Thomas were among those who helped the accused shooter avoid arrest until July 15.
Others are scheduled for arraignment in the case next month, including Zachary Evetts, whose attorney, Patrick McLain, has said he’s seen no evidence to support the government’s view of the case.
“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,” McLain said Saturday.
The shooting took place as Trump ’s administration has ramped up deportations. Days after that shooting, a man with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents and a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen near the Mexico border, injuring a police officer. Authorities shot and killed the attacker.
