WASHINGTON — The plot to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn Sunday night involved at least 12 suspects across the US who adhered to an “accelerationist” ideology and hoped to bring down American capitalism, according to federal law enforcement sources.
The FBI foiled their plans by infiltrating a Signal chat group planning the devastating attack — with the parent of one suspect reporting him to local police, sources told The Post.
The suspects are charged in at least four states — California, Ohio, Missouri and Nebraska — and intended to kill multiple politicians.
The multi-phase plot called for explosive drones to strike the South Lawn during the event, forcing attendees to flee outside the White House grounds where they could be picked off by a sniper team, officials said.
Tycen Proper, 19, was arrested on June 10 in Ohio after his mother notified the Danville Police Department and Knox County Sheriff’s Office of concerns about her son’s “recent conduct, including firearms purchases and communicating with certain individuals online,” according to a federal affidavit.
Those persons “claimed to be ex-military and Christian based,” the mother later said in a phone interview with an FBI task force officer.
Their “grievances” included “government corruption, the handling of the [Jeffrey] Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions,” per the affidavit.
“PROPER’s mother detailed that talking with these individuals online has caused PROPER to lean heavily into his religion, and she believed that those individuals were using religion to manipulate and influence her son.”
Proper’s mother had overheard him speaking with some by phone and mentioning that he was undergoing physical training for “recon” and “hit and run missions,” which she understood to mean “conducting shootings.”
In a private chat group, the suspects debated targeting Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) as well as West Virginia GOP Reps. Carol Miller and Riley Moore.
“I got a possible target Marsha Blackburn is senator for Tennessee,” one said on May 13 in the chat, responding that she was a target because the Republican had “taken money from the Israel pro Israel lobby and supports them.”
Proper — who denied he was planning to commit violence to investigators — also sent a May 31 message that stated, “these are the people we’re going to focus on,” followed by images of Justice, Capito, Miller and Moore.
Each image was lifted from the website TrackAIPAC.com, which opposes the lobbying work of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and records how much money politicians receive from pro-Israel contributors.
When executing a search warrant on the home where Proper lived with his parents, FBI agents and local law enforcement found a “large quantity of boxes of spent ammunition,” spent cartridge casings” and “other tactical clothing.
Family members also drew the authorities’ attention to comments Proper had made online expressing sympathy for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as well as other antisemitic statements.
Proper recently spent $3,000 of his high school “graduation money” on “camping gear, food, ballistic plates, a new shotgun, a rifle, ‘lots’ of ammunition, extra magazines, and plate carriers,” his father also told authorities.
Proper confessed to investigators in a June 11 interview that he had been planning a “coordinated” attack with others to “jumpstart” a revolution in the US, “which they believed was headed in the wrong direction” and “needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt.”
Some allegedly involved in the plot had initially connected on a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old” but later transitioned to communicating via the private messaging app Signal, the affidavit shows.
Unsealed affidavits also show Michael Alan Thomas and Bryan Oma Roa were both arrested in Southern California in connection with the scheme and been charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
Proper faces charges of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, attempted murder of an officer or employee of the United States, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and receipt or transfer of a firearm used to commit a felony.
Abraham Hermosillo Alvaraz was taken into custody in Nebraska, while Daniel Eskridge was arrested in Missouri, per other affidavits.
Sources said more arrests are possible, and authorities are preparing additional search warrants.
The suspects were plotting to gather in Fredericksburg, Va., and from there travel to DC to launch the explosive drone attack — and then attempt to storm the gates of the executive mansion, according to sources.
Sources said it is not yet clear how prepared the plotters were to actually carry out the attack, noting that one suspect was allegedly involved in the plans while in a mental health facility.
Suspects from the 23-member group subscribed to the far-right “accelerationist” ideology — a nihilist belief also espoused by the San Diego mosque shooters last month.
