Relatives of a Calimesa man accused of conspiring to wage an attack on the UFC cage-fighting match at the White House this month told an investigator that they believe family member Bryan Omar Roa planned to commit violence, yet they decided against reporting him to authorities, according to the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in U.S. District Court in Riverside.
FBI Special Agent Mark Prator, identifying the relatives by their initials, wrote that they cited “increased time spent shooting his weapons and a noticeable change in behavior, including increased anxiety.”
Roa, 24; Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of Piñon Hills in San Bernardino County; Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio; Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Missouri; and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha, Nebraska, were arrested on Saturday, June 13, a day before the UFC Freedom 250 event in Washington, D.C. They were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
The defendants are jailed without the possibility of bail. Roa is scheduled to enter a plea on July 7, and Thomas on July 21. The Southern California News Group has left messages for their attorneys, seeking comment.
Prosecutors allege the defendants planned to rig explosives to drones and fly them over the outdoor event and then shoot attendees as they fled.
Proper, in an interview with law enforcement, said that a person with the online username “Whiskey Six Amerika” was one of the lead planners. Investigators said they linked that handle to Thomas.
According to Prator, the agent, Roa told his family that “one day they would wake up and he would be gone, and that he intended to travel to Washington D.C., where ‘something big’ would happen. On June 10, a relative said, he awoke to find that Roa had left. … Roa’s family considered reporting him to the police after he left, but did not (do) so before he returned home.”
The complaint did not explain why the family did not notify authorities. A person who answered the door at Roa’s home on Wednesday declined to comment.
Prator said Roa told him that he planned to drive to Washington to protest but not take part in the attack. Car trouble scuttled his trip, Prator wrote.
“Roa also discussed how someone could hypothetically use drones armed with explosives to bomb buildings near the White House, which would cause mass panic with limited deaths at UFC Freedom 250,” Prator wrote. “Roa mentioned this as an example of how to use drones to enact political change in a more targeted way rather than indiscriminately killing people.”
Prator also interviewed Thomas, who the complaint said saw himself as the planner and advisor for the group, “and while he was not willing to take action himself, wanted to guide and instruct others on how to carry out attacks” to overthrow the government.
“Thomas indicated that he believes that the U.S. government is run by an elite group of individuals who sacrifice and consume infants who also were deeply involved with (sex offender) Jeffery Epstein and are now protected by President Donald Trump,” Prator wrote. “Thomas places some of the responsibility of this corruption of government with Jewish people and blames them and Israel for the current war with Iran.”