Federal authorities have arrested five men accused of plotting a mass-casualty attack at UFC Freedom 250 on White House grounds, a case that moved from online vetting to encrypted planning and now sits at the center of a national security scare. One of the defendants, Tycen Proper, is identified in court records as a 19-year-old from Ohio.
The arrests matter today because the event was hosted by President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House on June 15, 2026, with other senior government officials in attendance. Investigators say the men first connected around March through a TikTok community called Vanguard of the Old, then checked one another through identification documents, workout videos and tactical content before shifting into private Signal chats.
From there, prosecutors say the group widened its planning across four states and discussed explosive-laden drones meant to force an evacuation before opening fire on politicians and other targets as crowds ran. Court documents identify an Omaha, Nebraska, man known online as Shepherd as the alleged leader, and say he helped build the tiered structure, directed the discussions and coordinated members through encrypted communications.
The records describe Tier 1 members as frontline operators expected to carry out missions and acquire firearms and body armor. Other tiers were assigned to drone work, getaway driving, recruiting, logistics, technical support and social media promotion, a structure that looks less like loose chatter and more like an attempt to divide the work of an attack among specialized roles.
That is also where the case gets complicated. Vice President JD Vance said on ' The Five that there was a lot of security there and that the plot was not that advanced, adding, “They weren't in town.” His remarks leave a sharper question than the arrest count itself: whether prosecutors are describing a fully formed operational threat or a conspiracy that, despite the alarming language in the filings, never got close to the venue.
The filings do not spell out the exact charges for each arrested man, and they do not say whether Vanguard of the Old was anything more than an online community. What is clear is that federal investigators say the group crossed the line from online screening to attack planning, and that the next details to watch are the charging documents and the first court appearances.
