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Washington — The FBI said Tuesday that it disrupted an attempt to attack Sunday’s UFC America 250 event at the White House. Court records detail an alleged plot to use small drones carrying explosives and snipers to target senior government officials and wealthy attendees.
Five people have been charged for their alleged roles in the scheme: Tycen Proper of Ohio, Daniel Eskridge of Missouri, Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez of Nebraska, and Bryan Omar Roa and Michael Alan Thomas of California.
Each has been arrested and is being detained pending additional proceedings.
Affidavits filed across the four criminal cases detailed the alleged plot to target the UFC event at the White House on Sunday, with varying levels of involvement from the five defendants. The filings detail numerous grievances against the government and federal officials, including U.S. support for Israel, the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and data centers.
The White House hosted the UFC fight series on Sunday — President Trump’s 80th birthday — as part of the celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Thousands turned out to watch the fights on the White House South Lawn, where Mr. Trump sat in the front row.
The potential targets laid out in the court filings included President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk. A number of elected officials were also named, including Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation.
The defendants have each been charged with at least one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Proper, 19, faces three additional charges, according to court filings.
Two law enforcement sources told CBS News that officials seized weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and tactical gear from the suspects during the execution of search warrants. Sources said that no drones have actually been recovered. Use of the drones was believed to be in the discussion-and-research phases, the sources said.
Federal investigators became aware of the alleged plot based on a tip from Proper’s mother, who was concerned about his recent behavior, according to an affidavit submitted by an FBI agent in his case.
The alleged plot
The affidavit in the Proper case lays out the details of the alleged plot and the origins of how the FBI learned of it.
Proper told investigators that he began communicating with others via a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old” in March, whose members all said they wanted to protect the U.S. and believed the nation was headed in the wrong direction, according to the affidavit.
Communications among the group members continued on the encrypted messaging app Signal, where the FBI said they planned the attack for the UFC fight. There was one large chat, with approximately 19 individuals, dedicated to coordinating the attack, and smaller groups consisting of four or five users.
The FBI said discussions centered on the UFC event at the White House by early June. Eskridge allegedly said the group should obtain $1,300 to buy “drones and charges.”
The group was split up into tiers, ranging from “tier 1” to “tier 4.” The tiers included those who were willing to put themselves in harm’s way; members who could be getaway drivers or drone operators; supply and logistics operators; and funders and influencers.
The affidavit in Alvarez’s case said Proper identified a user known as “Shepherd” as the leader of the group. Proper “described him as aggressive in tactical planning” and said he believed him to be a former member of the military, according to the FBI.
The FBI included multiple messages from “Shepherd,” including maps of Washington, D.C., and instructions for carrying out the attack. The FBI said it traced a TikTok account back to Alvarez and identified him as “Shepherd.” Investigators said Alvarez devised the tier system.
The group’s plan to attack the UFC event involved staging a “demonstration” on the north side of the White House, the court filings said. The group would then fly drones “laden with unspecified explosive devices which would detonate over the north side of the UFC arena,” according to the filing in Proper’s case.
When the drones exploded, the group then planned to force attendees of the UFC event and “high value targets” to evacuate to the south, the affidavit said. Proper told investigators that the plan was for group members to “act as snipers and additional shooters,” shooting fight attendees and the “high value targets” as they fled from the explosions.
The affidavit said the “high value targets” were “wealthy people” and politicians.
The investigation into Proper began last Wednesday, when his mother contacted local law enforcement because of concerns about how he was acting, including his firearms purchases and online communications, according to the FBI. She said he had begun communicating online with a group of people who expressed “ultra-religious and anti-government sentiments,” including grievances about government corruption, the handling of files from Epstein’s case and data centers.
Proper allegedly told investigators the goal of the attack was to “jumpstart” a revolution in the U.S. He was interviewed from a hospital, where he was admitted on an emergency basis due to “homicidal ideations.”
Proper’s father and grandmother said he spent most of his time online talking to others, according to the filing. His father told police the 19-year-old had been planning “recons” with people he met online and had been planning to meet up with them over the weekend, the affidavit states. Proper’s father also said his son had recently obtained camping gear, food, ballistic plates, a new shotgun, rifle, ammunition, magazines and plate carriers, the FBI said. Agents alleged Proper spent roughly $3,000 of graduation money to buy the equipment.
CBS News’ Pat Milton reported earlier that law enforcement became aware of the threat after a relative contacted them, concerned that a family member was talking about doing something nefarious in Washington, D.C.
Blackburn, the Tennessee senator whom Proper allegedly named as a target, called the threat “chilling.”
“I will not let maniacs like this one deter me from celebrating or serving this great nation, and I am grateful to law enforcement for keeping us safe,” she wrote on X.
FBI Director Kash Patel revealed the existence of the alleged plot earlier Tuesday.
“On June 10, FBI and our law enforcement partners became aware of a potential threat to the UFC America 250 event in Washington, D.C. involving individuals outside of the National Capital Region — and thanks to the rapid action of this 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,” Patel wrote in a post on X.
“It was a serious threat,” U.S. Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn said during a briefing Tuesday morning. He said he could not provide too many details because it remains an active investigation, but said, “They were planning to attack the Freedom 250. … There are still suspects at large, and we’re going to work it until everyone’s been identified.”
Quinn added, “The event itself, I am confident in saying, was never at risk due to the great investigative work.”
Secret Service Director Sean Curran said in a statement that the agency had worked “closely with the FBI throughout this investigation,” and their “formal comments regarding the specifics of this case will be made available in court filings.”
Patel praised the FBI, saying the result “represented the best of investigative work” and was “nothing out of the ordinary for this law enforcement team.”
“We are built to detect, respond to, and bring to justice those who threaten the lives of American citizens — particularly during large gatherings like the historic UFC 250 fight,” Patel said. “That’s exactly what we did here.”
The alleged plot comes after a gunman was killed by U.S. Secret Service officers late last month after opening fire on a checkpoint near the White House and in the wake of an April 27 shooting that targeted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
