A 19-year-old Texas Panhandle man who idolized Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had photographed a Canyon park and monitored the city's published parade route before investigators moved in to stop what authorities describe as a planned mass-casualty attack on a Fourth of July celebration. Kevin Hunt pleaded guilty in April to a federal charge of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, and the Texas Department of Public Safety investigators who unraveled his plot have now been formally honored for the intervention.
A Plot Aimed at Canyon's Independence Day Crowd
According to The Dallas Express, Hunt's actions led directly to his arrest after investigators reviewed his surveillance activity, social media posts, digital communications, and what officials called grievance-based statements. As reported by ABC 7 Amarillo, the planned attack specifically targeted the City of Canyon's Fourth of July parade and an evening fireworks show at Paul Lindsey Park, after Hunt tracked the city's social media release of the parade route and took photographs of the park. The Dallas Express reports Hunt conducted site surveillance near local Independence Day events in July 2025, and that his ongoing grievances raised concerns of a targeted plot.
Court documents tied to Hunt's guilty plea revealed he idolized McVeigh, who carried out the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people, per ABC 7 Amarillo's reporting. The station also reported that Hunt had acquired and tested chemical compounds to build homemade explosives. Digital evidence pulled from his computer included a folder labeled fun stuff containing photographs of Paul Lindsey Park, along with a note titled READMEFIRST in which Hunt wrote that his actions were not out of hate but because “death is the end of all suffering,” according to the same station's account.
Months of Monitoring Before the Arrest
The Texas Department of Public Safety's Criminal Investigations Division in Amarillo began intensive surveillance of Hunt in February 2025, immediately after his release from a juvenile mental health facility and his placement on intensive supervision probation, the agency says. That monitoring window allowed investigators to track his online communications and social media activity as concerns mounted. Per the Dallas Express, investigators reviewed Hunt's grievance-based statements, surveillance activity, and social media posts as part of that effort, and Hunt had posted about self-harm and expressed a desire to carry out a mass-casualty attack.
The case reached a turning point on July 2, 2025, when DPS's Criminal Investigations Division, the Amarillo Police Department, and the Randall County District Attorney's Office detained Hunt on an emergency mental health warrant, according to the Dallas Express. Days later, on July 11, 2025, Randall County prosecutors charged Hunt with possession of components of explosives, a third-degree felony in Texas carrying two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, as reported by KFYO. He also separately faced state attempted capital murder charges involving multiple persons and state terrorism charges, the Dallas Express reports.
What Investigators Found in the Search
A search warrant executed at Hunt's home in July 2025 turned up an extensive cache, the Dallas Express reports: materials and components for building improvised explosive devices, multiple firearms, high-capacity magazines loaded with both full-metal-jacket and armor-piercing rounds, digital files with instructions for explosive manufacture, and a self-authored manifesto. Hunt admitted to producing explosive compounds, according to the outlet. ABC 7 Amarillo's reporting specified some of the seized chemical precursors as hexamethylene triperoxide diamine materials, hexamine, citric acid, 17% hydrogen peroxide, energetic powder, and BBs meant for shrapnel.
The federal case escalated on September 10, 2025, when Hunt was indicted on a weapon of mass destruction charge, per the Dallas Express — a charge that, under federal law, required approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before it could be filed, and which carries a potential sentence of any term of years up to life in prison, up to lifetime probation, and a fine of up to $250,000, according to ABC 7 Amarillo. Hunt formally pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lee Ann Reno at the J.M. Jones Federal Building in downtown Amarillo on April 29, 2026, and testified he had been receiving mental health services while held at the Randall County Jail, the station reported. He is scheduled for federal sentencing next month, the Dallas Express notes, and also has a state trial set later in 2026 in Randall County.
A California Co-Conspirator and an Evidence Cover-Up Attempt
The investigation extended beyond the Panhandle. A co-conspirator was indicted on July 15, 2026 on charges of hindering prosecution of terrorism and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, according to the Dallas Express — a terrorism count the outlet describes as the first of its kind filed in Texas. ABC 7 Amarillo separately identified the co-conspirator as a California teenager, Kristina Partida, accused of destroying electronic communications connected to Hunt's plot. She was arrested in California days after the September indictment, the Dallas Express reports, and was later extradited from California to Texas, arriving in Randall County in August 2026.
State Recognition for the Investigators
The Texas Public Safety Commission and DPS Colonel Freeman F. Martin presented a unit citation to the Criminal Investigations Division's Amarillo unit in Austin, according to the Dallas Express. Agents honored included Special Agent Logan Eastburn, Special Agent Christopher Ecker, Special Agent Alex Gallagher, Special Agent Micah Goodrich, Special Agent Norman “Joe” Livermore, Special Agent Shannon Henderson, Special Agent Kendall Styles, Special Agent Jimmy Phoutthavong, Special Agent Trevor Dillard, Special Agent Aaron Tarnutzer, Lieutenant Jered Snelgrooe, Lieutenant Robert “Ben” Dollar, and Lieutenant William “Bill” Brown.
The recognition follows a 2025 directive from Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordering the Texas Department of Public Safety to surge Anti-Terrorism Task Force resources statewide and expand public reporting mechanisms through the iWatchTexas program, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. That statewide push forms the backdrop against which the Amarillo unit's months of monitoring, from Hunt's February 2025 release from a juvenile mental health program through his eventual federal guilty plea, unfolded.
