By Rio Yamat
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — A man who set fire to Tesla vehicles in Las Vegas and who painted the word “resist” for authorities to find at the scene has been arrested.
Paul Hyon Kim, 36, faces charges in connection with the March 18 attack in both state and federal court in Nevada, authorities announced Thursday, a day after his arrest. Kim was being held in the custody of the federal government.
In state court, Kim is facing charges of arson, possession of an explosive device and firing a weapon into a vehicle, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.
Kim is also charged with federal unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm and arson, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.
Wearing a black T-shirt, black jeans and tennis shoes, Kim appeared briefly Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. He told a judge that he completed 12 years of schooling. Kim is scheduled to return to federal court Friday for a detention hearing.
The federal public defender’s office in Las Vegas, which has been appointed to represent Kim, declined Thursday to comment.
Security video played at the police news conference showed the suspect, dressed all in black and covering his face, paint the word “resist” across the glass doors of a Tesla service center. McMahill said the suspect threw Molotov cocktails — crude bombs filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid — and fired several rounds from a weapon into multiple vehicles. No one was injured.
McMahill said Thursday they were “actively investigating” a motive and whether it is connected to other recent cases of vandalism targeting Tesla property across the country.
There has been an uptick of attacks on property with the Tesla logo across the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office and tapped Tesla CEO Elon Musk for a prominent role overseeing a new Department of Government Efficiency that has slashed government spending.
Some of the most prominent incidents have taken place in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest.
An Oregon man allegedly threw several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem, then returned another day and shot out windows. In the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired at a Tesla showroom, damaging vehicles and windows.
Prosecutors in Colorado have also charged a woman in connection with attacks on Tesla dealerships that authorities say also included Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray-painted on a building. And federal agents in South Carolina have arrested a man accused of setting fire to Tesla charging stations near Charleston.
In Las Vegas, Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI division there, declined Thursday to comment on the similarities of the cases. But he told reporters last week that the Las Vegas case “has some of the hallmarks” of terrorism.
“Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of the hallmarks that we might think — the writing on the wall, potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Evans said. “None of those factors are lost on us.”