WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal authorities say they disrupted what investigators describe as a potential mass-casualty attack targeting Sunday’s UFC event on the White House grounds.
Officials said Tuesday morning that they’ve arrested multiple individuals in connection with the attack plan. It’s not entirely clear how close the suspects came to carrying out the alleged attack before law enforcement intervened, but officials confirmed it was more than just virtual messages.
“It was an active plot,” said Matt Quinn, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Tuesday morning that multiple suspects have been arrested for allegedly conspiring to carry out an attack at Sunday’s UFC fight at the White House.
“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,” said Director Patel on social media Tuesday.
Law enforcement first learned about the threat thanks to a suspect’s family member. According to a criminal complaint released Tuesday, 19-year-old Tycen Proper’s mother called police to report her son, who she said had compiled firearms and was communicating with a radical group online.
According to investigators, the group’s online messages discussed several details, including attaching lethal devices to drones to trigger chaos among the crowd and a gunman to fire upon attendees and viewers at the historic Freedom250 event, which drew an estimated 100,000 people to Washington.
“Involving, purported, planned to be drones, snipers, etc.,” said Quinn.
Proper is one of five suspects facing charges in connection with the alleged plot, which officials are still actively investigating.
“This is still an active ongoing investigation. Just because we’re done with Freedom 250, or that particular event, doesn’t mean we’re going to stop. There are still suspects at large, and we’re going to work it until everyone’s been identified,” said Quinn.
“The plot itself, causing a distraction, attacking people, already procuring the explosives and the danger and getting people together online to do this- that’s frightening and it shows some serious vulnerabilities,” said Michael Lebowitz, a former national security attorney for the Department of Justice and counterterrorism prosecutor. “My first thought was, again, who is pulling the strings in this one? Where did this plot come from? Because it seems very sophisticated, for just one 19-year-old to come up with and actually move forward.”
Lebowitz says over the last 10 years, there’s been a “backsliding” of many recommendations that were made after 9/11 to protect the nation from major attacks.
“We’ve lost thousands of intelligence community people and thousands of FBI analysts. They’re the people that kind of make sure nothing falls through the cracks,” he said. “At the same time, a lot of the FBI agents and law enforcement and DHS are kind of dual-hatted where they’re working in their regular jobs in counterterrorism, but they’re also working on immigration enforcement and things like that,” Lebowitz added.
If the suspect’s mother had not called to report her son, there’s a chance an attack could have been carried out to some extent. Lebowitz said it’s critical to ensure intelligence and counterterrorism agencies are adequately staffed with proper resources so they can spot red flags and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
“The real risk is that information that’s vital to protecting and countering these attacks or the technological advancements in drones might be falling through the cracks. And that’s the real vulnerability right now,” Lebowitz said.
Still, analysts, leaders and officials alike say the foiled UFC attack was the result of an impressive and quick response — one that involved multi-jurisdictional law enforcement coordination. The end result was the best-case scenario.
“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,” said Patel.
