Teen Plots ICE Agent Beheadings

Room filled with various firearms and ammunition belts.

An Oregon teenager’s alleged plan to behead federal immigration agents as recruitment trophies reveals how anti-government extremism has morphed into something far more sinister than mere online rage.

Story Snapshot

Rayden Tanner Coleman, 18, arrested after roommates reported his Discord messages threatening to kill ICE agents in Portland and behead them as “trophies” to recruit followers on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation
Police found glass bottles, surveillance equipment, tactical weapons, and materials for Molotov cocktails during a high-risk traffic stop at his workplace on February 4, 2026
Coleman faces 13 charges including unlawful manufacture of destructive devices and attempted assault, with bail set at $400,000 and trial scheduled for March 31
The plot involved creating a separatist nation called the Cascadia Rangers Coalition, targeting federal agents he believed were “killing or kidnapping civilians”

When Discord Chatter Becomes Real Threats

Rayden Tanner Coleman’s descent from angry Discord posts to assembling an arsenal happened with alarming speed. In early January 2026, the St. Helens resident began sharing messages with roommates about killing ICE agents. What started as inflammatory rhetoric escalated within weeks to stockpiling tactical axes, a US Army knife, shovels, and arranging delivery of an AR rifle. His roommates watched him bring knives into their apartment and discuss acquiring night vision goggles and camouflage gear. One friend even provided glass bottles, believing Coleman was joking. That miscalculation nearly enabled something catastrophic.

The Beheading Strategy Behind the Madness

Coleman’s plan distinguished itself from typical anti-government threats through its calculated brutality. Court documents reveal he intended to follow ICE agents home from Portland’s federal facility, kill them, and decapitate them. The severed heads would serve as recruitment tools on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, where he planned to establish his Cascadia Rangers Coalition. This twisted marketing strategy combined separatist ideology with shock value, banking on gruesome violence to attract followers to his vision of a Pacific Northwest breakaway nation. His manifesto tied this violence directly to what he called ICE’s actions against civilians.

How Concerned Roommates Stopped a Massacre

The plot unraveled because Coleman’s roommates took his threats seriously. After witnessing his weapons accumulation and increasingly specific plans, including discussions about killing a security guard’s father, they contacted authorities. A parent of one roommate made the initial tip to St. Helens Police. Officers conducted a high-risk traffic stop at Avamere Assisted Living, where Coleman worked, on February 4. They discovered glass bottles and surveillance equipment in his trunk. Six bottles were filled with sand, and Coleman had purchased hand sanitizer as an accelerant for Molotov cocktails. During questioning, he admitted to planning the killings but downplayed the beheading talk as expressions “out of anger” without genuine intent.

Portland’s History of Federal Law Enforcement Clashes

Coleman’s targeting of ICE agents didn’t emerge in a vacuum. Portland has become ground zero for protests against federal immigration enforcement, particularly during the intense 2020-2021 demonstrations where federal agents deployed tear gas and less-lethal munitions against crowds. These high-profile confrontations created a charged atmosphere around ICE operations in the city. Coleman specifically cited anger over what he perceived as federal officers “killing or kidnapping civilians” as motivation for his plot. His radicalization reflects how online communities can amplify local tensions into violent extremism, transforming legitimate policy disagreements into murderous fantasies.

The Cascadia Ideology Meets Violent Extremism

The Cascadia independence movement typically advocates Pacific Northwest bioregionalism through peaceful means. Coleman corrupted this concept into something unrecognizable, grafting violent anti-federal terrorism onto separatist rhetoric. His choice of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation as a recruitment base added another disturbing layer, inappropriately invoking indigenous themes without any apparent connection to tribal communities or their consent. The “Cascadia Rangers Coalition” existed only in his planning documents, with no evidence of actual organizational infrastructure. This one-man operation nonetheless required serious law enforcement intervention because of his methodical preparation and access to weapons.

Legal Consequences and Security Implications

Coleman faces six counts of unlawful manufacture of destructive devices, six counts of unlawful possession, and one count of attempted second-degree assault. His arraignment occurred February 6, 2026, with a pretrial release hearing scheduled for February 11. The $400,000 bail reflects the severity judges assigned to his alleged preparations. This case may establish precedent for prosecuting online manifestos and threat communications as substantive criminal acts rather than mere speech. Security at Portland’s ICE facility has likely intensified, and federal authorities may scrutinize Discord servers and other platforms where anti-government rhetoric festers into actionable violence.

What This Reveals About Modern Extremism

Coleman’s case exposes how domestic extremism has evolved beyond traditional ideological categories. His anti-ICE motivation doesn’t fit neatly into white supremacist, religious, or left-wing activist frameworks that typically dominate hate crime discussions. Instead, it represents anti-government sentiment metastasizing into personalized violent ideology, amplified through online echo chambers where disturbed individuals radicalize themselves. The beheading-as-recruitment strategy borrowed tactics from international terrorism while targeting domestic federal agents. This hybridization of extremist methods poses unique challenges for prevention efforts. The fact that roommates, not sophisticated surveillance, stopped this plot underscores both the importance of community vigilance and the accessibility of violence for determined actors. Law-abiding citizens standing up against this madness made the difference between disrupted planning and executed carnage.