Eight charged with murder conspiracy over alleged White House UFC attack plot | Washington DC
Eight men were indicted on murder and terrorist conspiracy charges Thursday for their alleged roles in a drone and sniper attack that foiled a UFC cage-fighting show at the White House in June.
The indictment sent to Ohio charges all eight with two counts of conspiracy; one is providing material support to terrorists, the other is committing murder on federal government land and killing a federal government official.
According to the indictment, the conspiracy began in May when the group began collecting money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical equipment, communications equipment and other items.
On June 10, law enforcement learned of a possible threat to Donald Trump’s UFC cage fighting show four days before the mixed martial arts show.
The justice department last month announced federal charges against seven people across the country, including in Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Nebraska and California. Authorities said the group’s members harbored fringe conspiracy theories and hoped the attack would destabilize the government.
According to a federal affidavit, one of the defendants told investigators they planned to fly explosives-laden drones to the event and then shoot panicking crowds as they fled.
Tycen C Proper 19 of Danville, Ohio, and four others were arrested and charged in Missouri, Nebraska and California over the weekend of the UFC event called Freedom 250. About a week later, two more defendants were charged and arrested by the FBI in Washington and Missouri. The justice department said the eighth man was charged this week.
The eighth defendant is Chandler D Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, who is in custody in this state. Scaggs was allegedly assigned to be one of the snipers in the planned attack, according to an affidavit.
Scaggs was apparently picked up by Proper and taken to Washington, but lost contact with Proper after he was arrested, like the others, the affidavit said.
Scaggs allegedly signaled to the group that he was still willing to participate in the attack and arranged to travel to the event with another co-conspirator.
