A plot to attack a recent UFC event at the White House was largely planned online by about 20 people, including an Ohio man, using popular social media networks to “jumpstart” a revolution in the United States.
The Ohioan, Tycen Proper, identified himself to police as a leader within the group. The online chats were mostly made up of ex-military and anti-government individuals who touted extremely religious views, according to records from the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to Proper’s mother, who tipped off police June 10, Proper began interacting with unidentified individuals online regularly, and told his mother of plans to conduct “recon” and “hit and run” missions.
Over the course of the planning process, Proper participated in group chats on short-form content social media platform TikTok, encrypted messaging app Signal and messaging platform Discord, and posted comments on social media platform Facebook.
Proper’s mother said Proper had quit his job, purchased a variety of camping equipment and tactical gear, and shared plans to leave town June 13, the day before the UFC White House event.
Outside of messages, Proper’s mother also told officials she’d observed him having verbal conversations with unidentified individuals on his phone. The DOJ reported that most of his communications with these groups occurred through his mobile phone, which they obtained a search warrant for June 11.
Here’s more about how these platforms were used, according to court filings.
TikTok was a recruitment tool for alleged attackers
Proper began communicating with other individuals in a chat titled “Vanguard of the Old” in March on TikTok, believed to have been the main method of recruitment for the plot, according to DOJ documents.
Members of this group chat varied in their beliefs about the status of the United States. Some believed the country needed to be saved and was moving in the wrong direction, while others believed it needed to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch, according to documents.
Group members also generally shared a belief that anyone involved in the Jeffery Epstein files should not be trusted with a position of power in the United States. It’s unclear how many individuals were involved in this TikTok group chat.
Through this group chat, individuals shared images and videos of the equipment they’d acquired and proof of their own physical abilities as a way of expressing their commitment to the cause.
Encrypted Signal app used by group
Once participants had shown enough interest through the TikTok group chat and were properly vetted, they were added to a separate chat in Signal, an encrypted messaging system.
Signal allows users to create settings that will delete messages after a certain period, making it sometimes difficult for law enforcement to navigate, according to Britannica.
Proper told officials he believed most of the people in this group chat had prior military experience.
The main chat on Signal was made up of 19 people, Proper included. Additionally, there were smaller groups of about five people based on role assignment and location.
One of the smaller groups, titled “Hunters,” was led by a man who went by the online alias “Shepherd.” Officials said they believe the man’s identity to be that of Abraham Alvarez, a resident of Omaha, Nebraska. Proper said Shepherd was the primary individual responsible for planning.
In this smaller chat, specific details about the plans for the June 14 attack were shared, including maps and photos pinpointing specific places for snipers and drones. Shepherd also outlined some escape routes in this group chat, according to DOJ documents.
Discord was another form of communication
Proper’s mother said she observed him receiving additional messages from unidentified individuals over Discord, including images and maps.
Discord was originally designed as an instant messaging platform for communication between members of the video game community. It allows users to create servers with multiple members or have private conversations through voice call and messaging.
Proper posted anti-Semitic comments on Facebook
Members of Proper’s family alerted officials to Facebook comments he made that were sympathetic to Adolf Hitler and anti-Semitic.
According to Proper’s mother, Proper spent less time with family and more time speaking with individuals through messaging systems in the weeks leading up to the UFC event.
Additionally, Proper spent about $3,000 on camping gear, food, ballistic plates, a new shotgun, rifle, ammunition, extra magazines and plate camera, according to his father. Most of the funds he received for graduating high school a couple of months prior, according to DOJ documents.
On June 11, Proper was being held at the Dublin Springs Mental Health Center due to “homicidal ideations,” records said.
Plans for the attack
Members of the planning group resonated with “ultra-religious and anti-government sentiments,” and expressed “grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities and other government actions,” according to Proper’s mother.
The plan included plans for Proper to pick up another group member in West Virginia on his way from Ohio to Washington, D.C.
Drones with explosives attached were expected to fly over the northern area of the UFC arena and detonate, causing both the crowd and “high value targets” to flee to the south, where snipers would be waiting.
Reporting Intern Lilli Malone can be reached at lmalone@dispatch.com or on Instagram at @lillimwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: See messages White House UFC attack plotters sent on social media
Reporting by Lilli Malone, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Lilli Malone, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
