New details released on July 10 revealed how law enforcement thwarted a terrorist plot against high-profile government officials at the White House’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Freedom 250 event.
The investigation started in May 2026 after the mother of 19-year-old Tycen C. Proper, of Danville, Ohio, notified police that her son was purchasing firearms and had increased his online communications.
“When the FBI began to investigate Tycen Proper, we quickly learned of the alleged plot involved multiple people across the country coordinating and planning a violent attack,” Jason Cromartie, the special agent in charge of the FBI Cincinnati Field Office, said in a press conference on Friday.
Cromartie said the suspects, who resided in about a handful of states across the nation, were planning to carry out a “mass casualty attack involving the use of drones armed with explosives and firearms meant to shoot people fleeing in the crowds” at the patriotic event on June 14.
The defendants allegedly wanted to murder high-profile targets such as President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not attend the event.
In the following days, arrests were made in Missouri, Nebraska, and California.
Eight men, including Proper, were indicted by a federal grand jury on July 9.
All eight suspects were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official.
Each suspect faces up to 15 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and up to life in prison for conspiring to commit murder, according to a press release by the Department of Justice on July 9.
The names of the additional suspects are Abraham H. Alvarez, Daniel K. Eskridge, William L. S. Falkner, Jordan W. Rincker, Bryan O. Roa, Chandler D. Scaggs, and Michael A. Thomas.
The suspects allegedly communicated mostly through apps such as Signal, SimpleX, Discord, TikTok, and Instagram, and on Friday, officials revealed at least three of the suspects met in person.
U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II suggested that encrypted apps, like some of the ones used in this case, can be echo chambers for homegrown extremists, suggesting the technology can “embolden people to come up with plans” because they “think they’re not going to be detected.”
Gerace added that defendant Roa, a 25-year-old from Calimesa, California, was planning to drive to Washington and pick up others along the way, but his car broke down.
“These folks had amassed ammunition, had amassed weapons, were looking at 3D printers for drones, and had travel plans to go to D.C.,” Gerace added.
The investigation is continuing and Gerace would not reveal if any other suspects will be charged.
“I think the FBI, Secret Service, all our partners are doing a comprehensive investigation, and so I think it would be obviously irresponsible of us as federal law enforcement to not look at every single person that was potentially involved here or in these chat rooms or chat groups,” Gerace told reporters at the end of the press conference.
