A screenshot of a TikTok video allegedly posted by Trevon McDaniel. (Credit: FBI)
(FOX40.COM) — A young man from Elk Grove who posted TikTok videos dressed as a superhero was arrested this week for allegedly threatening to destroy power generators on the 4th of July.
Trevon McDaniel, who went by “the_wild_wolfspider” on TikTok, was arrested July 1 by federal agents. According to the criminal complaint released Thursday, the 19-year-old first came to the FBI’s attention during the investigation into an alleged plot to attack the June 14 Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House.
McDaniel allegedly communicated directly with Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, who federal prosecutors described as one of the principal coconspirators in the UFC plot. When Alvarez was arrested in Nebraska, investigators found TikTok messages between he and McDaniel from April 17 to June 7.
Although McDaniel was not part of a Signal chat between alleged conspirators on the plot to attack the UFC event at the White House, the criminal complaint details messages with Alvarez — plus at least one publicly-posted TikTok video — that mentioned an attack “centered around the July 4th holiday involving the use of fireworks against federal buildings and property.”
On June 23, “the_wild_wolfspider” posted a video showing McDaniel allegedly wearing a Spider-Man-like mask and costume mentioning that “the 4th of July is coming,” telling people to “hold onto your fireworks” and that “we might need to make some noise this year.”
“I’m not really plotting or planning or telling anybody to do anything,” McDaniel allegedly said at the end of the video, according to the FBI agent who filed the complaint. “I’m just saying, for everyone in Sacramento, we know you love your fireworks. It’d be a shame if fireworks were going off near generators, so certain federal buildings were losing their power.”
Using the Department of Homeland Security’s database, federal agents connected multiple imported items connected with superhero costumes and the name Wolf Spider or Spider Wolf, according to court documents. They led officials to two addresses, one in McKinleyville on California’s North Coast — where McDaniel previously lived — and another in Elk Grove, where the FBI found him during a search Wednesday.
Federal agents found a costume matching the one in the video, but McDaniel denied being behind the “wolfspider” TikTok account.
However, McDaniel’s wife told the agents that he was the person behind the account — and that he had been wearing the costume and calling himself the Wolfspider “for the last six months.”
McDaniel was arrested for threatening to damage or destroy generators that supply power to federal buildings in Sacramento and made his first court appearance Monday, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Eric Grant from the Eastern District of California. If convicted, he would face up to 10 years in prison.
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