OAN Staff Blake Wolf
10:01 AM – Tuesday, July 8, 2025
A group of ten individuals were arrested following an ambush shooting outside of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, where an officer was shot in the neck.
The incident, in which law enforcement officials have labeled a “planned ambush with the intent to kill ICE corrections officers” took place on the night of the Fourth of July.
Prior to the shooting, the group dressed in all black shot fireworks outside of the facility, damaging cars in an attempt to “draw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel outside the facility, and it worked,” stated Nancy Larson, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
Shortly after arriving at the facility, a few of the individuals also began spraying graffiti on vehicles in the parking lot, with photo images showcasing messages that read “ICE pig,” and “F*** you pigs.”
Correctional officers dialed 9-1-1 shortly thereafter, where an Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck on arrival, allegedly by one of the defendants positioned in the woods near the facility.
“Another assailant, who was across the street, nowhere near the corrections officers, shot 20 to 30 rounds at these unarmed corrections officers,” Larson stated. “There was an AR-style rifle found at the scene.”
The group then reportedly fled from the scene, and were stopped by law enforcement officials shortly thereafter.
“Some were wearing body armor, some were covered in mud, some were armed, and some had two-way radios on them,” Larson added.
Multiple ensuing searches of the vehicles associated with the defendants were found to contain numerous sets of body armor, magazines containing ammunition, spray paint and flyers which read “FIGHT ICE TERROR WITH CLASS WAR!” and “FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS.”
In the days after the attack, Maricela Rueda, a defendant in the criminal complaint, allegedly called Daniel Rolando Sanchez, expressing his concern for a potential raid at Rueda’s home in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Whatever you need to do, move whatever you need to move at the house,” Rueda told Sanchez – who was later charged in a separate complaint – according to court documents.
As the FBI began conducting surveillance on Sanchez, he was found to be transporting “anti-government propaganda,” including fliers which read: “Organizing for Attack! Insurrectionary Anarchy,” according to the complaint.
The incident preceded a similar ambush attack in McAllen, Texas, on Monday where a man armed with an assault rifle was killed after shooting at federal agents stationed at a U.S. Border Patrol facility.
Larson was asked if the two ambush attacks had any connection, to which she responded: “This is an ongoing investigation, so we cannot comment on any connections to what happened in McAllen.”
The defendants are named as Cameron Arnold, Savannah Batten, Nathan Baumann, Zachary Evetts, Joy Gibson, Bradford Morris, Maricela Rueda, Seth Sikes, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto. The criminal complaint charges each of them with three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer, and three counts of discharging a firearm during, in relation to and in furtherance of a violent crime.
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