Just after 0530 last Monday morning, I sprang out of bed, scooping up a 1911 pistol from the magnet mounted on my nightstand. The last time I did that was in Jalalabad, or possibly Lashkar Gah; I can’t remember exactly, but it was at least 15 years ago, when I was living and working in Afghanistan. I stood frozen in place, wondering what was going on, when I heard it again, distant rifle fire coming from somewhere near the airport.
I would have been upset had I leaped out of bed like that for no reason. A buddy of mine described my reaction as unconscious competence. That sounds about right, as my comfort with firearms is the fruit of thousands of hours of practice. The subconscious recognition of rifle fire is a trait I share with thousands of military and contractor veterans of the Afghan and Iraq wars.
The firing did not last long and was followed by a chorus of sirens as McAllen police and EMS units began to roll towards the Border Patrol Annex next to the airport. This attack was just 3 days after the attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. McAllen is 500 miles south of Alvarado, and it is hard to believe the two attacks are linked. But the lone gunman was dressed in black and could well be a fellow traveler.
The gunman, Ryan Louis Mosqueda, had a Michigan driver’s license and Michigan plates on his car, but was reported missing from Weslaco (18 miles east of McAllen) at 4:00 am that morning. That indicates somebody close to him was worried about his mental stability or suspected he was going to do something stupid.
Mosqueda spray-painted the words “Cordis Die” on the side of his car, which, according to press reports, is a phrase from the Call of Duty: Black Ops II video game, meaning “the day of the heart.” His attack on the Border Patrol had a video game vibe. He parked his car in the Border Patrol lot and stood there waiting for somebody to show up. When an admin guy drove in and parked his car Mosqueda engaged him. The Admin guy fired back with his pistol, but it jammed, so he called 911 to report an active shooter.
The Border Patrol annex is a small building with a small parking lot, so we’re talking engagement distances of less than 50 feet. Mosqueda then walked towards the entrance, firing rounds from his rifle, and tried to enter the building, but the door was locked. He produced a pistol and shot at the doors a few times before walking around the south corner of the building to reload his rifle. A trio of Border Patrol agents came out of the building, told him to drop his weapons, and then shot him “graveyard dead” when he refused to comply. That’s what you would expect to happen, making this appear like suicide by cop.
Mosqueda’s tactics and weapon handling were the opposite of competence. Given the target density, short distances, and superior weapon platform, it was a pathetic amateur hour performance. He did not hit any of the many targets he engaged. One of the responding McAllen police officers took some shrapnel in his leg from a round that had skipped off the deck. Glass fragments cut the admin guy; he had engaged Mosqueda through his windshield, but the glass could have been from return fire.
A second McAllen police officer was transported to the hospital because of “ringing in his ears.” It’s hard to know what to make of that, but it doesn’t reflect well on the local 5-0.
The Prairieland Detention Center ambush was also a poorly planned clown show. It was conducted by an eleven-man person Dallas Antifa cell that included a former Marine. It appears the Marine hit an officer in the neck, showing a degree of marksmanship competence. Then his rifle jammed, and he left it behind, demonstrating gross gun handling and tactical decision-making incompetence.
The abandoned rifle was a Franklin Armory FAI 15, equipped with a binary trigger. The trigger setup is intended to increase the rate of fire, but it has a reputation for frequent Type 3 malfunctions and/or light primer strikes. It’s a gimmick trigger that appeals to people who don’t know shit about gunfighting because when it functions as designed, it causes excessive muzzle flip and recoil, sending rounds high and to the right.
It is not clear what the Antifa cell thought they would accomplish with this ambush. There were 10 cell members at the ICE facility, eight were used to lure the ICE officers out of the building while two designated shooters lay concealed inside a tree line. The eight vandals launched fireworks and spray-painted the privately owned vehicles in the parking lot. The feds inside the detention facility called 911, and when the Alverado Police arrived, the shooters unleashed around 30 rounds, hitting one of the cops in the neck.
After the shots were fired, whatever plan the Antifa had went pear-shaped. Bradford Morris, the alleged ringleader, took off by himself in a red Hyundai van and was immediately pulled over by responding police officers. Inside his van, police discovered a pistol, an AR-15 rifle, loaded magazines, a 2-way radio, a ballistic helmet, and multiple sets of body armor.
Police then found Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto, Nathan Baumann, Maricela Rueda, Seth Sikes, Joy Gibson, and Savannah Batten walking down the road. They were dressed in black paramilitary clothes and had loaded weapons, magazines, body armor, and printed flyers with “fight ICE terror with class war” and “free all political prisoners” messaging.
Zachary Evetts, one of the shooters stationed in the tree line, was found walking alone on a road about three miles away from the facility. He too was dressed in black ‘military style’ clothing and had “a black balaclava mask, a pair of tactical style gloves, and a pair of safety goggles.” He was smart enough not to have a weapon with him, but that’s irrelevant, given his clothing and tactical gear. When asked where he was coming from, his brilliant response was “I don’t know.”
This staged attack lacked the planning and rehearsals necessary for an “action” by ten people to have any chance of success. Like the bizarre one-man assault on the McAllen Border Patrol annex, the detention center attack makes no sense to anyone familiar with tactical fundamentals.
Cameron Arnold, who is pictured above with the others, was arrested the next day at Bradford’s apartment. The tenth man at the ambush was the former Marine who is still at large.
The former Marine is named Benjamin Song, and he showed up on my phone earlier in the week in the form of a public safety alert:
Investigators uncovered his name and address when they processed the abandoned rifle; his cell phone records placed him at the scene of the ambush, and his Mercedes-Benz was parked outside the home of Bradford Morris, the ringleader of this debacle.
Bradford Morris believes he is a woman and goes by the name Megan. I am in flagrant violation of the AP stylebook and guilty of the pseudo crime of dead-naming by using his given name. But you know what? Fuck Bradford, the Associated Press, and the legacy media; I’m tired of their politically correct bullshit.
The million-dollar question is, what did they think would happen once they started shooting cops? It’s possible they thought liberal judges and progressive prosecutors would rescue them. Batten, Song, and Soto have been arrested multiple times for protest-related violations but never prosecuted.
In 2020, Song shouldered his FAI-15 and aimed it at an Austin police officer. He lowered the weapon and backed into a crowd of protesters when the police aimed at him. Song was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer. But he was in Austin, where the local grand jury declined to indict him. The Austin Police Department was ordered to return items they confiscated from him, including a semi-automatic rifle, a semi-automatic pistol, two loaded rifle magazines, and a green gas mask.
Dallas is another Texas city saddled with liberal judges and prosecutors, but the Antifa ambushers have not been jailed and won’t be prosecuted in Dallas. They are in Johnston County under 10 million dollar bonds and charged with terrorism, aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer. I suspect they will spend the rest of their days inside a Texas State Penitentiary. Song may opt for the suicide by cop route like Ryan Mosqueda; time will tell, and his time is running out.
Political violence is a tool the democrats have been employing for years. Their adjuncts in the press run interference for them by ignoring the amount of destruction, injuries, and deaths caused by organizations like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. When the BLM founders misappropriate donations to purchase million-dollar mansions, take elaborate vacations, and buy expensive vehicles, they are not de-banked or removed from funding platforms. That only happens to Trump supporters or physicians who questioned the COVID-19 narrative.
The democratic party is hemorrhaging the support of men from every class, creed, and color because men perceive democrats as woke, weak, and antipathetic to American values. In response, the democrats are becoming unhinged. They are encouraging their NGO funded shock troops to cause so much damage that the Trump administration or conservative citizens overreact. Then their media adjuncts can gaslight about the “threat to democracy” 24/7 before the midterms.
That’s not going to happen. There are no conservative organizations that riot, loot, or destroy property. The local and federal officers in cities like Portland and Los Angeles have shown remarkable restraint. If anything, they have been too timid in dealing with aggressive rock-throwing, fireworks-shooting rioters. When they start wood shampooing the shit out of those assholes, most of America will applaud them.
The 20+ million Americans who have concealed carry permits, who know how to use guns, are the most law-abiding segment of American society. Blue-haired weirdos will not provoke us into using our weapons recklessly.
Democrat whining about “state-sanctioned violence” lacks the bandwidth to paper over the protester violence we witness daily. Nobody cares what they say anymore; they sacrificed their credibility with the Muh Russia, COVID, and Hunter Biden laptop hoaxes years ago. They will pay for their malfeasance when their chickens come home to roost.
Many thanks for the ongoing clarity and sanity in all this, Tim!
Of course Nancy and thank you fro taking the time to comment.