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By Andrew Stanton
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Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old Ohio man, was arrested on charges of attempted murder of a federal officer and conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States after federal law enforcement thwarted an attack at Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House, according to court filings.
Proper is one of five men who were arrested in connection with the planned attack at the White House event.
Newsweek reached out to a public defender representing Proper via email for comment.
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Who Is Tycen Proper? What Affidavit Says
During an interview with investigators, Proper allegedly “admitted to planning with others a coordinated attack against the United States government during the UFC event scheduled to take place on the White House lawn in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, June 14, 2026,” according to an affidavit reviewed by Newsweek.
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. She expressed concerns about a group he had been communicating with that allegedly “expressed ultra-religious and antigovernment sentiment,” according to the affidavit.
She said he had been “interacting with a group online that was comprised of individuals who claimed to be ex-military and Christian-based.”
They specifically cited grievances about corruption, the handling of the Epstein files and data centers. She expressed concerns that they were “using religion to manipulate and influence her son.”
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His father told police that Proper had recently met people online and had been planning “recons,” planning to leave over the weekend to meet with them. He allegedly spent $3,000 of graduation money to purchase equipment, including firearms and camping gear.
His mother told law enforcement that the communications mostly occurred on his cellphone and gave them a phone number for him. She said he had begun researching and mapping locations “in the area just northwest of Washington D.C.”
He would not tell her exactly what he was doing, but that they planned to conduct "recon” and “hit and run missions,” which she believed to mean conducting shootings and then leaving.
After the June 10 meeting, he was hospitalized based on homicidal ideations, the affidavit said.
The FBI and local police executed a search warrant at the residence on June 11. During the investigation, family members said he had become “closed off” from family and raised concerns about statements, including sympathetic comments about Adolf Hitler and anti-semitic comments on Facebook.
Proper Admitted Attack Plans: Affidavit
They located “detailed” attack plans on his phone, the affidavit said. They also interviewed Proper at the medical facility where he was housed, and he admitted to planning an attack. He said members began communicating with one another in March via a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old.”
The group said they wanted to protect the U.S. and believed the country needed to be “torn down so that it could be rebuilt,” according to the affidavit. Some members moved communications to Signal, where they began planning for the attack.
Members would meet in Fredericksburg, Virginia, over the weekend ahead of the attack, and he planned to pick up another member of the group on the way. Several members were intent on violence, he said, according to the affidavit.
The plan was to stage a demonstration on the north side of the White House. While that was occurring, the group would fly drones laden with explosive devices, which would detonate over the north side of the arena. The intent was to force the crowd to evacuate south, and members would act as snipers and additional shooters, the affidavit said.
Members also discussed specific targets, including Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, Senators Jim Justice and Shelley Moore Capito, as well as Representatives Carol Miller and Riley Moore, all of whom are West Virginia Republicans.
Proper has no prior record with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
A preliminary hearing is set for June 29, according to court records.
What Authorities Have Said About Planned Attack
FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a post on X Tuesday that law enforcement became aware of the potential attack on June 10 and that “multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold.”
"While the result represented the best of investigative work, it was also 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. That’s exactly what we did here," Patel wrote.
Four other men were also arrested, including Bryan Roa and Michael Thomas in California, Daniel Eskridge in Missouri and Abraham Alvarez in Nebraska, the Department of Justice wrote in a press release on Tuesday.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ will "take immediate and aggressive action to identify and prosecute those who incite and plan acts of violence.”
A total of five people were arrested from states including Ohio, Missouri and California, The Associated Press reported, citing a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. The other two have not yet been identified.
The report, citing unnamed officials, also said alleged plotters planned to storm the White House gate. The report said five people were in custody and 23 were identified as part of a network of plotters.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran said that in the days leading up to Sunday's event, his agency “worked around the clock to identify those responsible and hold them accountable.”
Curran added: "Equally important to our protective mission is ensuring accountability through the justice system. To that end, our formal comments regarding the specifics of this case will be made through court filings."
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