One of the suspects accused of planning an attack on the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House hoped to target trillionaire Elon Musk, according to the group’s messages.
The alleged plotters hoped to carry out the attack by detonating explosive-carrying drones over the event last Sunday before conducting a sinister secondary strike with snipers on those evacuating.
In a Signal chat dubbed “Hunters,” a user with the moniker “Shepherd” posted his plans and gave orders to others around June 11, according to a criminal complaint. Investigators later identified “Shepherd” as 31-year-old Omaha resident Abraham Alvarez, who is reportedly not a U.S. citizen.
Law enforcement nabbed Alvarez Sunday at an old church in Western, Nebraska, according to NBC’s Omaha, Nebraska, affiliate WOWT.
Screenshot from Alvarez’s alleged Signal messages.
“i. Targets confirmed ii. 1. 2. VP 3. N 4. Musk,” the message read.
While reports last week indicated that Musk would attend the UFC event at the White House, it does not appear that he made the trip.
Alvarez also appeared to assign roles within the group, classifying them as “Sniper 1,” “Sniper 2,” “Sniper 3,” and “Drone Operator,” adding that he was “working” on drones “as we speak.”
Investigators believed that the targets identified by Alvarez included President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Musk.
Alvarez allegedly identified a “fall back location” for the group to meet at an old church in Nebraska.
“They can grow the camp, and make a training ground we have the go ahead from the owner,” he allegedly wrote in the chat, adding, “grow your numbers, I will build your teams.”
“Train them, fall back location is NE in an old church,” he wrote, according to the complaint.
Screenshot: Justice Department complaint
Tycen Proper, 19, who was also arrested as part of the alleged plot, told authorities that he learned of “an anti-government protest in Washington, D.C.” through a TikTok posted by a user who also went by “Shepherd,” according to the complaint. It is not clear whether that was also Alvarez, who used the nickname on Signal.
Proper also identified “Shepherd” as “the primary individual involved with planning” and “directly stated that Shepherd was the leader of the group and described him as aggressive in tactical planning,” according to the complaint.
The radicalized teen allegedly wrote in one of the chats on or about May 13 that he “got a possible target Marsha Blackburn is senator for Tennessee,” saying the group should go after her for taking “money from the Israel pro Israel lobby.”
He also allegedly sent messages on May 31 saying, “These are people we’re going to focus on,” before sharing photos of Senator Jim Justice (R-WV), Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV), and Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV). The four images appeared to have been taken from the website “TrackAIPAC.com,” which shows how much money each lawmaker received “from pro-Israel PACS.”
Authorities arrested five individuals, including Alvarez and Proper, for their alleged involvement in the plot.
Some of the alleged attack planners were said to have “expressed ultra-religious and antigovernment sentiments, specifically citing grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions.”
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