State And Federal Agencies Join North Carolina Substation Shootings Investigation

The FBI and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation have joined the investigation into vandalism and attacks on power substations in Moore County, North Carolina, that caused widespread power outages and an emergency declaration in the county. 

Following the outage, Moore County has implemented a curfew from after 9 p.m. until further notice. 

The criminal investigation follows utility crews’ discovery of vandalization at the sites, including, according to the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, gunfire damage to at least two substations, Nicole Grether, Gloria Pazmino, Hannah Sarisohn and Tina Burnside report for CNN. 

“It was targeted, it wasn’t random,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said Sunday. “The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing.” 

Duke Energy’s outage portal reported 67 outages impacting 33,222 customers in Moore County as of Monday morning, an improvement on the numbers reported in a statement Sunday, and estimated a power restoration date of Thursday, December 8. All schools in the county have been closed.

Officials have yet to identify a suspect or potential motivation for the attack, Zach Schonfeld reports for The Hill. 

Between the involvement of state and federal agencies and the damage to power equipment, Sheriff Fields said that charges for the perpetrators will be extensive, with “more teeth, more bite,” Martha Quillin and Dan Kane report for the Charlotte Observer. 

“An attack like this on critical infrastructure is a serious, intentional crime and I expect state and federal authorities to thoroughly investigate and bring those responsible to justice,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper tweeted on Sunday.