Teen among arrested in plot to attack White House UFC event

What began with a concerned mother calling police on her son ended in the thwarting of a terror plot involving drones and snipers aimed at members of U.S. Congress attending Sunday’s UFC event at the White House, the government alleges in a criminal complaint filed against one of the plot’s admitted leaders, an Ohio teen.

Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, told federal investigators on June 11 he intended to “jump-start” a revolution in the U.S. with an attack on June 14 that would begin with drone bombings over the north side of the arena. Co-conspirators, the charging documents allege, planned to take up sniper positions overlooking southern evacuation routes and shoot “high value targets” including U.S. politicians the group identified as supporting Israeli interests.

Proper was hospitalized with homicidal ideations, on the evening of June 10, after his mother called police in Danville expressing concerns over his recent purchases of firearms, ammunition and ballistic plates; his affiliation with a Christian extremist group on TikTok; preoccupation with Jeffrey Epstein and government corruption; online posts sympathetic to Adolf Hitler; and his stated intention to conduct “hit and run missions.”

Proper is charged with, among other offenses, attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States.

Federal criminal complaints indicate authorities arrested at least four others in connection with the plot and as a result of the investigation into Proper: Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez in Nebraska, Bryan Omar Roa and Michael Alan Thomas in California, and Daniel Eskridge in Missouri.

In an interview with law enforcement, Proper described a conspirator using the moniker “Shepherd” as the group’s chief organizer. A criminal complaint alleged that user was Alvarez, and that he used coded terms in encrypted chats to describe priority targets, including President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose attendance at the event had been the subject of online rumors, and Elon Musk. Netanyahu did not attend the event.

Investigators said the group also planned to target congresspeople, including U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ar.) Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and U.S. Reps. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) and Riley Moore (R-W.Va.).

The FBI learned about the alleged threat four days before the mixed martial arts extravaganza on the White House’s South Lawn, “and thanks to the rapid action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Tuesday morning. The Secret Service “worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable,” Director Sean Curran said in a separate statement.

Trump, who celebrated his 80th birthday at the UFC event Sunday, sought to tie the fights to larger celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Information from ESPN’s Michael Rothstein and The Associated Press contributed to this story.