The Department of Justice on Friday announced that it had arrested a Kansas City teenager attending college in Boston and charged him in the arson attack on two Tesla Cybertrucks and charging stations last month in Missouri.
The DOJ said Owen McIntire, 19, made his initial court appearance in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on Friday on charges of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device and one count of malicious damage by fire of any property used in interstate commerce.
The charges stem from a March 17 incident at the Kansas City Tesla Center. The FBI said McIntire used a Molotov cocktail to set a Cybertruck on fire, with the fire spreading to a second truck. The Cybertrucks had sale prices of $105,485 and $107,485.
"Let me be extremely clear to anyone who still wants to firebomb a Tesla property: you will not evade us," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. "You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will spend decades behind bars. It is not worth it."
It marks the second Tesla-related arrest this week.
A man who allegedly torched two vehicles in February at a Tesla dealership in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and painted "Die Elon" on the side of the building in reference to Elon Musk was slapped with federal charges on Monday. Tesla Inc. is owned by White House senior adviser Musk.
"This is the second arrest this week of a suspect charged with targeting Tesla, more proof that the FBI will not stand for these destructive acts," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. "These actions are dangerous, they are illegal, and we are going to arrest those responsible."
The FBI last month launched a multiagency task force to investigate the domestic terrorism incidents involving nearly 50 reported attacks on Tesla vehicles, charging stations, and dealerships.
The 10-person task force, which also includes personnel from the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, including its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section and Weapons of Mass Destruction, began investigating the then-48 known instances of attacks on Tesla cars and Cybertrucks.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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