Breaking news! FBI claims white nationalist behind north Carolina power grid attack! Attack on drag queen show stopped

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Officials on Sunday cautioned residents of Moore County, North Carolina, to prepare for days without electricity after a targeted attack on substations left 45,000 customers in the dark.

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said a suspect or suspects drove up to two Duke Energy power substations Saturday night — breaching a gate in one case — and opened fire, disabling them and resulting in a blackout for tens of thousands that could last through Thursday.

As of Monday at 11:25 a.m., over 36,000 customers remained without power, according to Poweroutage.us.

The substations are located in West End and Carthage, North Carolina, and are about 5 miles away from each other, according to Maj. Andy Conway with the Moore County Sheriff's Office.



The sheriff said the motive in the case connection to a 7 p.m. LGBTQ+ drag show in the city of Southern Pines on Saturday.



The headliner and host at the Sunrise Theater event, Naomi Dix, said in an interview that the show went on in candlelight Saturday after power ceased at about 8:15 p.m.

She said she was unaware the outage might have had anything to do with the event until hearing news Saturday night that mentioned unconfirmed reports the outages may have been the result of an attempt to put the drag show in the dark.

"The show got a lot of heat from right-wing conservatives who did not want us there," Dix said.

The Fayetteville Observer reported Friday that the event, titled "Downtown Divas," was the subject of threats, criticism and unfounded allegations about the LGBTQ+ community and certain types of crime.

"This is nothing new to our community," Dix said.


The nation's power grid has also captured the imagination of right-wing extremists, some of whom believe it could be the lynchpin for radical political change.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said in February that power facilities and other infrastructure have long been on the attack wish list of white supremacists who desire American "destabilization."

Early this year, three men pleaded guilty in connection with plotting to attack power substations. The trio hoped to disrupt the electricity grid, sow civil unrest and economic uncertainty, and ultimately trigger a race war, federal prosecutors said at the time.