Feds Foil Drone and Sniper Plot to Massacre Thousands at White House UFC Event

A Deadly Plot Hiding in Plain Sight

While thousands of spectators cheered mixed martial arts fights on the White House South Lawn on June 14, a potentially catastrophic attack was already being dismantled behind the scenes. A plot to unleash explosive drones and sniper fire at the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House was meant to "jumpstart" a revolution by killing President Trump and other top political figures, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. The scheme was elaborate, multi-state, and — chillingly — organized in large part by people barely old enough to vote.

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. Law enforcement learned about the threat on June 10, four days before the mixed martial arts event on the White House South Lawn. 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.

How the Plot Was Supposed to Work

Federal court documents show the plan included using drones with explosives to hit buildings near the UFC Freedom 250 fight and have snipers target "certain high value targets." 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 explosive-laden drones were designed to hit buildings in the area to spur a mass evacuation, with a "second wave" targeting a security checkpoint then planned.

The criminal complaint for Alvarez states that in one chat, he made clear that four of the targets of the plot were President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom online speculation suggested could attend the UFC event. Alvarez allegedly operated under the online moniker "Shepherd" and served as a key organizer of the plot, using a Signal chat to direct staging locations, sniper and drone positions, escape routes, and communications protocols.

A Mother's Call That Broke the Case

During an interview with investigators, Proper allegedly admitted to planning with others a coordinated attack against the U.S. government during the UFC event. Police responded to a home in Knox County on June 10 after receiving a call from Proper's mother, who expressed concerns about her son's firearms purchases and online communications. His father told investigators that Proper had recently used $3,000 of his graduation money on camping gear, ballistic plates, a new shotgun, "lots" of ammunition, extra magazines, and plate carriers. His father also told officers that Proper had quit his job to meet up with people he had met online to conduct "missions" and "recons."

Proper admitted in an interview with law enforcement that he participated in the planning of an attack, with some members of the group beginning to communicate last March through a TikTok group called "Vanguard of the Old." The complaint alleges that Proper admitted to plotting the attack with people who began communicating via TikTok before shifting to Signal, an encrypted messaging app. There was one large chat, with approximately 19 individuals, dedicated to coordinating the attack, and smaller groups consisting of four or five users.

What This Reveals About Modern Terrorism

The group, called "Vanguard of the Old" on TikTok, believed the U.S. was headed in the wrong direction and that it needed to be torn down so it could be rebuilt. The court 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. Multiple sources confirmed that those in custody are American citizens, and a foreign nexus was not involved.

Investigators have warned that there are still suspects at large and that the investigation will continue until everyone has been identified. The case is a stark reminder of how quickly radicalization can move from a social media comment section to a detailed, operational attack plan — and how a parent's instinct may have been the most powerful counterterrorism tool of all. As authorities continue to unravel the full scope of the network, the episode raises urgent questions about how platforms like TikTok are used to recruit and radicalize, and what it takes to spot the warning signs before it's too late.