Bodycam footage shows White House terror suspect’s mom’s emotional appeal

In newly released body camera footage from a June 10 welfare check in Knox County, the mother of 19-year-old Tycen Proper delivered an emotional appeal to both law enforcement officers and her son, urging them to recognize the gravity of his online activities and recent behavior before it spiraled further.

The nearly 30-minute interaction began calmly as Danville police and Knox County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the family home following concerns raised by the mother of Proper, who has been charged in connection with an alleged terrorist plot targeting the White House.

The mother had contacted authorities after noticing her son’s growing fixation on anti-government topics, large purchases of firearms and ammunition, body armor, and communications with people he met online. What unfolded on camera captured a mother’s raw fear for her child’s life and future.

“I told him it scares the crap out of me. I don’t want him to end up, like gone, and not have any contact with him,” she said, describing Proper’s plan to leave that weekend. “Do you know what that would do to me?” she said, turning to her son. “How much that would break my heart.”

The officers asked Proper to come with them for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation, to which his mother pleaded for him to heed the officers’ words.

As Proper went inside to grab his shoes, his father began to tell officers of his son’s plans to shoot people, adding that he was not responsive to concerns about the consequences.

“And he’s like ‘well, I’m not going down,’ he’s very passive and nonchalant.” “He’ll lie to your face,” Proper’s mother warned.

Standing on the front porch of the family home, Proper’s family explained that they had raised their kids in church and that Proper had a strong sense of justice.

“He’s wanted to be a police officer since he was a little boy,” his mother told officers.

Yet as Proper spent more time online, waiting for recruitment results, Proper’s mother described how her son became increasingly radicalized by individuals he had never met.

“He truly believes that this is a Christian thing to do — to fight the evil,” she told officers, her voice heavy with concern. “But I think he’s twisting it and distorting it.”

Proper’s parents detailed the weaponization of those moral convictions, which they say culminated in Proper using graduation money to gear up and quit his job directly ahead of his planned trip to D.C.

“You said you’re fighting evil. What’s evil? I know Epstein files, and all the sex trafficking is upsetting him, and the data centers,” Proper’s mother told officers.

As law enforcement took Proper into custody, the family opened up further about his rapid transformation.

“You need to look at his phone. I saw him on Google Maps, and he had this little pin drop in Washington D.C.,” Proper’s father said.

Highlighting his plans and preparations, what appears to be Proper’s mother, father and younger brother began to share details of explosives, lists of famous people, and a plot to “kill evil people.”

“He said the reason he wants to join the army is to kill people, like evil people,” his parents said.

Ultimately, the family said they took Proper’s guns, knives, a bag of ammunition, bullet-proof vests, and locked them up before police arrived.

The welfare check proved pivotal. Days later, federal authorities charged him with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder of a U.S. officer or employee, and firearms violations tied to an alleged plot involving multiple individuals targeting the UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House lawn.

Authorities say the mother’s actions helped disrupt the entire scheme, as a routine welfare check became a desperate bid to reclaim a son from the edge of twisted ideologies.

As the federal case proceeds, however, the situation highlights a growing parental struggle against online radicalization, from a growing nationwide dehumanization ideology that justifies violence and even murder of perceived enemies.