Two men in Missouri are accused of plotting to shoot migrants at the Texas border and broadcasting their plans on TikTok, the FBI said.
Details of the alleged foiled plot — that also included threats of violence in Washington, D.C., and against U.S. Border Patrol agents — come from two criminal complaints filed last Friday in federal district court for the Western District of Missouri.
Bryan C. Perry, 37, a Tennessee resident, was charged with three counts of making a threat over the phone, unlawfully possessing a firearm and shooting at federal officials.
Jonathan S. O’Dell, 32, a Missouri resident, was charged with one count of transmitting a threat across state lines and one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm.
Threats on TikTok against migrants, government
According to the affidavits, the FBI received an anonymous tip last month that Perry, using TikTok account @trashpanda1774, posted a video threatening an attack against the government.
“I am probably the only one right now that is ready to go to war against this government and I don’t mean just talk about it I mean grab my rifle and go to DC and take this country back physically, not sit in a basement and talk about it,” Perry said in the video, according to documents.
Perry also posted videos in which he tried to recruit “six likeminded individuals” with guns and gear to take part in his plan, according to an affidavit.
Around the end of last month, O’Dell posted a video to the TikTok account @mobornfromthe90s in which he discussed his plans to “secure the southern border” and leave for Texas on Oct. 4.
In other videos, Perry “discussed traveling with a group to the U.S. border to shoot migrants,” and said that the U.S. Border Patrol were committing treason by allowing undocumented immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico, adding that treason is punishable by death, the affidavits state.
‘I’m already practically a terrorist’
The FBI identified Perry as the owner of the @trashpanda1774 TikTok account after retrieving information provided by TikTok, Yahoo and AT&T that matched the TikTok account to Perry’s phone number and email address, according to documents.
Using phone records showing frequent communication between Perry and O’Dell, the FBI identified O’Dell and found his address in Warsaw, Missouri, about 100 miles southeast of Kansas City.
Once agents had his address, they matched the exterior of his home with the exterior of a home that appeared in one of Perry’s TikToks in which he stated “a war is coming.”
After staking out the property for a few weeks last month and earlier this month, the affidavits state, agents determined the pair were living together.
On Oct. 2, two days before O’Dell had said the pair would be heading to Texas, an undercover FBI employee spoke to O’Dell on a phone call.
During the call, O’Dell “said he wanted to get a group together to secure the border between the United States and Mexico,” the affidavit states. O’Dell also offered to trade firearms if the undercover employee could provide amateur radios and night vision goggles.
“I know I’m already practically a terrorist,” he added. “I know that for a fact because I’m a patriot.”
The day after that call, Perry posted to his TikTok announcing their plans to travel to Texas on Oct. 8, adding that they planned to bring “full kits,” which according to the affidavits often refers to “wearable vest carriers that better enable shooters to carry extra gear including body armor, spare ammunition, and radios.”
“We’re not going down there to protest,” he said in the video. “We’re not going down there to just be a presence. No, we are going down there and we’re taking this country back.”
Perry also said he had called Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office and left a message stating he is a “cofounder of a militia” and “If ya’ll cannot take care of this border and shut it down then we will be forced to come in and do it ourselves.”
O’Dell also told the governor’s office he was coming, according to the affidavit.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On an Oct. 4 phone call with the undercover FBI agent, O’Dell told the agent “I don’t expect a good outcome from us going down there,” and that it will be “kill or be killed,” according to the affidavits, which added that he said he feared they would go through all 2,000 rounds of ammunition they planned to bring.
Shots fired at the FBI
When the FBI executed a search warrant at O’Dell’s home on Oct. 7, Perry began shooting at the agents and later admitted it to a special agent, according to the affidavit.
Agents estimated Perry fired eight or nine rounds at them, several of which hit their car.
Authorities later found a shotgun and an AR-15 located in the house. In a subsequent interview, O’Dell told agents the shotgun was his and admitted he was not supposed to have it, according to the affidavit. Perry told investigators the AR-15 was his, documents show.
Both O’Dell and Perry are forbidden from possessing firearms. O’Dell due to a condition of his release on bond and an order of protection filed against him last March, according to the affidavits; and Perry due to a 2005 conviction for aggravated robbery for which he served more than a year in prison.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
