Suspects in Texas ICE shooting tied to trans, anti-fascist activism [View all]

[Mosby]

DALLAS — Just after dusk on July 5, the crash of wood and metal suddenly reverberated through a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood here known as The Bottoms. Neighbors peered out to see a small army of men in desert camouflage and tactical vests crouched behind a black armored vehicle, shouting commands toward a brick house.

A SWAT team had smashed through the front door of the residence, which neighbors say was occupied by several transgender women, part of a group of activists who initially united around trans and queer identity issues. Now, the women, dressed in bathrobes and pajamas, were being detained at gunpoint, neighbors said.

“It was weird enough that six or seven White, trans people moved into the neighborhood,” said a neighbor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of privacy concerns. He rolled a joint and gazed at the plywood-covered front window: “And now the FBI is raiding their house.”

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Eleven people have since been charged with attempted murder and terrorism-related offenses, and at least three others with aiding their escape or concealing evidence.

Inside the house in Dallas, officers discovered nine firearms and a person wanted in connection with the shooting, a transgender woman named Autumn Hill, according to charging documents. The other residents were released without charges. Ten days later, authorities arrested Benjamin Song, 32, a Marine-reservist-turned-anti-fascist activist, and charged him with firing one of the weapons recovered at the scene.

https://wapo.st/47ErNiO