FBI Joins Investigation of Rifle Attack That Knocked Out Power for Thousands in North Carolina

Federal investigators have joined local and state efforts in North Carolina to uncover the truth about a mysterious attack on an electrical substation complex that knocked out power for tens of thousands of residents. Meanwhile, towns have ground to a halt and residents struggle for warmth.

Electricity remained out for an estimated 35,000 residents of central North Carolina on Monday as repair crews worked to replace equipment at two electrical substations following a rifle attack against them the night prior. According to local reports, the substations might not be repaired until Thursday.

Temperatures plunged into the 40s overnight in Moore County, and buildings that had electrical generators rushed to provide heat to residents who chose not to flee the area during the outage. Authorities imposed a mandatory curfew overnight, saying the attack had been “intentional” but declining to use the word “terrorism.”

On Monday, schools in Moore County and the city of Carthage remained closed, as did many establishments. With traffic lights out, intersections turned into chaotic four-way stops, creating huge traffic problems, according to local reports.

‘It Wasn’t Random’

According to Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields, the probe hasn’t yielded a suspect or a motivation for the attack. However, the attacker did know what they were doing: the sheriff told reporters they pulled up to the substations in a car, breached the gates, and opened fire at very particular parts of the complex.

“The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing,” Fields told reporters on Sunday. “We don’t have a clue why Moore County.”

"It was targeted, it wasn’t random,” he added.

As a result, the FBI, a federal law enforcement agency, has joined the investigation.

'Sitting Ducks'

The attack echoes a mysterious sniper attack in 2013 against the Metcalf transmission substation near San Jose, California. The attack failed to cause a significant power outage, but did cause roughly $15 million in damage to 17 transformers and spark fears of future terrorist attacks against electrical stations.

This past July, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that a so-called “accelerationist handbook” was being circulated among “extremist Telegram channels” that had been inspired by the Metcalf attack, encouraging white supremacist groups to carry out similar attacks against power stations and other infrastructure instead of shooting attacks against minority groups.

Calling substations “sitting ducks, worthy prey,” the pamphlet argues that “So long as the power turns on, the status quo, the downward decline of our race, and the increase in nonwhites in our lands will carry on unhindered.” It calls on adherents to this white supremacist ideology to carry out “more fruitful acts that will REALLY harm the system and brings us closer to the collapse that is needed for our race to once again thrive on this planet.”

Both the DHS and FBI have identified terrorism by white supremacist groups as the “most persistent and lethal terrorist threat” faced by the US in recent years. However, a report last month by the US Senate’s committee on homeland security and governmental affairs blasted the two federal agencies for “fail[ing] to systematically track and report data on domestic terrorism” or dedicate adequate resources to respond to the threat.

However, the DHS is not yet a part of the North Carolina investigation, and it has not yet been labeled as terrorism.