On Christmas Day, vandals assaulted four power substations in western Washington, knocking off the electricity for more than 14,000 people. According to police, the perpetrators were attempting to “send a message.”
The crimes were the most recent in a string of related assaults that some have attributed to right-wing terrorists.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is looking into the assaults as if they were carried out by a single individual or a related gang, according to Sergeant Darren Moss, a department spokesperson.
We are unable to corroborate that, he said. But it is clearly how we will approach it. In one day, there were four. on December 25. What point do they want to make? That shouts, “I want to make a point.” I’m not sure.
According to the Seattle Times, authorities have not yet disclosed a motive for the assaults, any suspects, or the amount of the damage.
Additionally, residents have provided contradictory descriptions of hearing gunshots before to the occurrences.
Gary Moore, who lives directly across from the Puget Sound Energy substation, was unaffected by any gunshots.
The Spanaway substation is less than a mile from Eva Robinett’s home, although she claims her husband was one of those that did.
After receiving a call from a substation employee where cops had received information about “a burglary,” deputies learned about the assaults.
Arriving investigators saw evidence of “forced entry,” but nothing had been stolen. The widespread outages were the result of equipment damage.
A few hours later, cops got a call from another facility a short distance away that was also reporting a break-in. Nothing was stolen from the scene, to reiterate. A gated section at one facility was cut, as shown by images from a third and fourth plant nearby that promptly reported the identical incident. Deputies at the second location discovered a burning station.
Deputies are looking into the break-ins, which are being condemned as “deliberate” and “criminal” by authorities, including the director of Tacoma’s electricity system.
After authorities learned of the fourth attack, which occurred later than the others at around 7pm, Joe Wilson of Tacoma Power told Fox13 Seattle on Sunday, “It was a person who chose to disrupt so many people’s livelihood on a wonderful holiday.”
Eight assaults in the progressive states of Washington and Oregon stand out in particular.
Federal law enforcement had issued a warning about a potential danger to the local electrical system prior to the assaults.
Apart from speculating on a Sunday morning time frame, Tacoma Public Utilities, which is in charge of the attacked substations, provided no further details about the attack’s precise nature.
Deputies have been reluctant to classify the acts as domestic terrorism since they lack a suspect. Although many claim such is the case based on the circumstances surrounding the crimes.
Law enforcement officials in Washington claim they got a note from the FBI earlier this month alerting them to potential assaults on power plants in the Pacific Northwest.
In recent weeks, there have been eight assaults on power facilities in Washington and neighboring Oregon, which has prompted the FBI to look into them.
The bureau announced that it was looking into whether protesters against a drag show in the small town of Southern Pines were responsible for an attack earlier this month in North Carolina.
Extremists have been harboring “credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020,” according to Department of Homeland Security officials.
Others have argued that in order to stop such attacks, the US power grid, which connects more than 145 million people and includes over 7,300 plants, needs better security. According to journalist Ali Winston, who has spent years studying extremist organizations, they meet the requirements for domestic terrorism.
An old tenet of the American extreme right wing, according to Winston, is the trope of attacking critical infrastructure, such as the electrical grid or power infrastructure.
After the attacks on December 3 in which unidentified gunmen opened fire on two power plants in Moore County, North Carolina, cutting off electricity to more than 40,000 homes, officials issued a bulletin warning of threats to the infrastructure supporting the production of electricity.
According to the sheriff’s office, Tacoma Public Utilities first received a report of vandalism at one substation, located at 22312 46th Avenue E, at around 5.30am on Sunday. The second substation, located at 8820 224th Street E, then received a report of vandalism shortly after.
A third incident was reported later in the morning, this time by Puget Sound Energy – which operates two of the stations. The substation at 10915 144th St E was targeted at 2.39am, cops said, which caused power outages to around 7,300 customers.
Most of the vandalism happened in the morning, but the fourth was not reported until later, at 7.20pm. When authorities arrived to the station, also run on Puget, it was on fire. Deputies said the fire was set deliberately.
This fire knocked off electricity to inhabitants in surrounding settlements of Kapowsin and Graham, which have a combined population of 37,000.
In total, the disruptions impacted around 14,000 subscribers, with 7,700 located in a region southeast of Tacoma.
While many were left without lights for the entire Christmas holiday, power authorities, by midday, announced they had restored electricity to all but 2,700 people. All clients impacted by the disruptions have subsequently been restored electricity.
According to spokesman Andrew Padula, the almost 8,000 Puget customers who lost power had been restored by 5am.
According to Padula, the corporation is looking into it with the authorities but has chosen not to say anything more.
According to the sheriff’s office, someone entered the walled area enclosing the substations in all three instances and destroyed equipment, resulting in a power outage.
It is unknown how the substations were harmed, according to officials. There are no suspects in custody, and authorities are unsure whether the incident was planned.
Earlier this month, Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, Cowlitz County Public Utility District, and Puget Sound Energy confirmed six distinct attacks on electrical substations in Washington and Oregon in the preceding weeks, according to reports from Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW-FM in Seattle.
The public engagement program manager for Puget Sound Energy, Gerald Tracy, said that he was unable to “comment on the instances since they are both subjects of an active FBI investigation.”
The Pacific Northwest substations reported assaults using “handtools, arson, weapons, and metal chains perhaps in response to an internet call for attacks on vital infrastructure,” according to a federal law enforcement document.
In previous assaults, criminals have cut security fence linkages, started adjacent fires, shot equipment from a distance, or thrown things over the fence and onto equipment to get over security fences, according to the document.
The FBI is now looking into whether the two strikes in North Carolina were meant to take out the drag queen event’s power.
Around the same time that the electric facilities were shot at around 7 o’clock on Saturday, a drag event was scheduled at the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines by a North Carolina LGBTQ group.
As a result of the catastrophe, authorities in the Southeast declared a state of emergency, leaving around 32,000 people without electricity.
»Vandals in Washington state evidently wanted to say something«