MOORE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — Tuesday marked two years since an intentional attack on electrical infrastructure in Moore County left thousands in the dark and one woman dead.
On Dec. 3, 2022, two electrical substations, just a few miles apart in Carthage and Vass, were hit by gunfire. The same gun was used in both shootings. The damage to the substations plunged most of the county into darkness in an outage that lasted days and impacted roughly 45,000 Duke Energy customers.
Rumors quickly spread across social media that the attacker may have intended for the outage to disrupt a drag show in Southern Pines after the event drew backlash from some in the community. Law enforcement has never verified that connection. Despite the loss of power, the show went on in the dark.
Karen Zoanelli, 87, who depended on an oxygen machine, died because her equipment failed in the subsequent outage. The medical examiner ruled her manner of death a homicide.
“While the decedent succumbed to her pre-existing natural disease, the preceding failure of her oxygen concentrator as a result of a power outage precipitated her demise through exacerbation of her breathing insufficiency. And since the power outage involved reportedly occurred in the setting of a criminal firearm attack on the regional electrical distribution substation, the manner of death is best classified as Homicide,” the medical examiner reported.
According to CBS17, warrants released in the months after the attack show that a man called law enforcement and told them that his co-worker had been “in communication with people connected to a right-wing group that had a plan to attack substations in Moore County.” CBS 17 withheld the co-worker’s name because he was never charged with a crime.
After investigating phone records, officials questioned a former U.S. Army ranger who worked for a power management company. Records placed his wife’s cell phone within 900 yards of one of the substations minutes before the attack. The ranger reportedly said his wife had been in Charlotte the night of the shooting.
A description of a vehicle of interest, seen near one of the attack sites, was also released by officials: a light blue or silver Honda Odyssey van.
The FBI, the governor’s office and the Moore County Sheriff’s Office are offering a combined total of $100,000 in reward money for any information that leads to a conviction in this case.
But this wasn’t North Carolina’s first — or last — substation attack. Weeks prior, on Nov. 11, 2022, a Carteret-Craven Electrical Co-op substation in Maysville was damaged in what was initially called “criminal vandalism.” The FBI later confirmed that the reported vandalism was a shooting. Thousands lost power in Jones County for a few hours before systems were restored. There is also a reward for information in this shooting.
Then just over a month later, an EnergyUnited substation in Randolph County was hit by gunfire in the early morning of Jan. 17, 2023. No customers lost power. As with the other attacks, the FBI is offering a reward for information.
In June of 2024, a substation in Durham was damaged by gunfire, causing a fire and leaving around 700 customers in the dark for a few hours. The FBI is assisting in the investigation.
Lawmakers respond
A congressional hearing about infrastructure safety took place on June 16, 2023, in Moore County, where Sheriff Ronnie Fields and U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-Southern Pines) expressed dissatisfaction with the FBI’s communication with them during the investigation.
“I did not get the help I thought I would get,” Fields said at the time.
Hudson said, in apparent agreement with Fields, “I’m not satisfied with the cooperation and the work of the FBI. I think the FBI needs to do more.”
That summer, North Carolina lawmakers unanimously passed SB58, called the “Protect Critical Infrastructure” bill, which was co-sponsored by state Sens. David Craven (R-Montgomery) and Amy Galey (R-Alamance), who both represent areas that include Randolph County. Cooper signed the bill into law on June 19, saying at the time, “We must protect critical infrastructure that keeps electric power and clean water available in our communities, and this bill sends a message to criminals that these irresponsible acts will not be tolerated.”
SB58 stiffens penalties for anyone found to have intentionally damaged infrastructure. However, no arrests have been made in any of these shootings.
Similar cases
While no arrests have been made and no motive has been released by officials about the attack, it is worth noting that multiple people have been arrested for planning similar attacks across the country over the last few years. Nearly all of them are in or have connections to neo-Nazi groups.
Two weeks after the Moore County shooting, at the beginning of Hannukah, a banner adorned with Nazi imagery advertising a Telegram channel for the “National Socialist Resistance Front” was unfurled on a highway overpass in Vass, and a second banner was found on Christmas in Cameron. The Telegram channel contained numerous Nazi memes and graphics, including what appeared to be an image, posted just two days after the Jones County shooting, of a person’s silhouette in front of an electrical substation with the words “bring it all down,” a phrase that was on the first banner.
Cook, Frost and Sawall
In the days after the Moore County attack, search warrants were issued for three men who were awaiting sentencing for planning similar attacks in Texas and Ohio, seizing electronics from them. The three men, Jonathan Frost, Christopher Cook and Jackson Sawall, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in February 2022. Frost and Cook were sentenced to prison time, while Sawall was committed to an institution.
“The defendants in this case wanted to attack regional power substations and expected the damage would lead to economic distress and civil unrest,” Assistant Director Timothy Langan of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division said at the time of their sentencing. “These individuals wanted to carry out such a plot because of their adherence to racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist views. When individuals move from espousing particular views to planning or committing acts of violence the FBI will investigate and take action to stop their plans. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect our communities.”
Collins, Duncan, Hermanson, Kryscuk and Maurino
Five men, including three ex-Marines who had been stationed at Camp Lejeune, were on trial for plotting substation attacks in the Pacific Northwest in 2020 while the substation attacks in North Carolina were happening.
In 2024, ex-Marines Liam Collins, Jordan Duncan and Justin Wade Hermanson, National Guardsmen Joseph Maurino and former porn star Paul Kryscuk were sentenced for various charges related to shipping illegal firearms interstate and planning substation attacks. Collins, Duncan and Hermanson had all been stationed at Camp Lejeune at various points.
The indictment alleges that for three years, between 2017 and 2020, Kryscuk manufactured guns and Collins, stationed at Camp Lejeune at the time, stole military gear and had them delivered to the other men. Duncan gathered “a library of information,” some military-owned, about weapons, toxins and explosives.
Kryscuk and Collins were said to have met on the now-defunct neo-Nazi forum Iron March.
Collins was sentenced to 10 years, Kryscuk to seven years, Duncan to six years and Hermanson to just under two years. Maurino has not been sentenced.
Clendaniel and Russell
In February 2023, just a month after the Randolph County shooting, Brandon Russell and Sarah Clendaniel were arrested by federal agents for plotting to attack substations around Baltimore, Maryland.
Russell had previously been sentenced for plotting to destroy energy infrastructure in his home state of Florida. Explosive material was found in his apartment while law enforcement was investigating after one of his roommates murdered another.
Russell is also known as one of the founders of Atomwaffen Division, a violent accelerationist neo-Nazi sect, of which the National Socialist Resistance Front is considered an offshoot.
Court records show that they described to an informant that they believed this attack would cause catastrophic cascading failures and plunge the city into chaos. They also shared a video about the attack on Moore County with the informant, saying it would explain their strategies.
Philippi
In Nov. 2024, a Tennessee man was arrested for plotting to destroy an energy facility. 24-year-old Skyler Philippi was charged after what officials describe as a months-long investigation. Philippi reportedly told a source that attacking an electric substation would “shock the system” and cause other substations to fail. The DOJ said Philippi planned to use a drone with explosives attached to it and fly the drone into the substation.
In September, Philippi allegedly drove to a substation with undercover FBI employees to research the station. Philippi reportedly told them he had researched power grid attacks in California and North Carolina. The California attack Philippi reference is the Metcalf sniper attack, which did millions of dollars in damage in California over a decade ago and remains unsolved. An explanation of this attack is a frequently circulated document in neo-Nazi circles called “The Garden.”
“As charged, Skyler Philippi believed he was moments away from launching an attack on a Nashville energy facility to further his violent white supremacist ideology – but the FBI had already compromised his plot,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the press release when Philippi was arrested. “This case serves as yet another warning to those seeking to sow violence and chaos in the name of hatred by attacking our country’s critical infrastructure: the Justice Department will find you, we will disrupt your plot, and we will hold you accountable. I am grateful to the public servants of the FBI for their extraordinary work on this case and for the work they do every day to keep our country safe.”
Terrorgram
“Everyone, please take a moment to congratulate yourselves. It seems as though this avenue of attack, an incredibly effective one at that, has really caught on. I like to think that all our hard work in detailing its effectiveness and showing our community how easy it is not only to do but to get away with, has helped encourage this. Death to the grid. Death to the System.”
This was a message allegedly sent by a woman named Dallas Humber, of California, to a group known as the Terrorgram Collective on Jan. 20, 2023, just three days after the Randolph County substation shooting. An article about the attack was included with the message.
In September, Humber and Matthew Robert Allison, of Idaho, were indicted on a charge of conspiracy, four counts of solicitation of hate crimes, three counts of solicitation of the murder of federal officials, three counts of doxing federal officials, interstate threatening communications, two counts of distribution of information relating to explosives and destructive devices, and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
These were all related to their purported activities on “Terrorgram.”
“‘The Terrorgram Collective,’ commonly referred to as ‘Terrorgram’ — a combination of the words ‘terrorism’ and ‘Telegram’ — is a network of channels, group chats, and users on Telegram that promote white supremacist accelerationism: an ideology centered on the belief that the white race is superior; that society is irreparably corrupt and cannot be saved by political action; and that violence and terrorism is necessary to ignite a race war and ‘accelerate’ the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethnostate,” the indictment reads.
While Humber and Allison were not charged in any North Carolina attacks, prosecutors presented their discussions around at least one of the North Carolina shootings as evidence that they encouraged others to commit those kinds of attacks.
Moore County was not discussed specifically, but messages included in the evidence show that allegedly Humber posted this on Dec. 6, three days after the attack:
“At any given time, there are determined soldiers of this struggle out there in the night, getting ready for their attack. Planning, assessing targets, scoping them out, and everything that goes into a well-planned and precision strike. Next time your power is out, you should wonder if it will ever come back on any time soon. Maybe one of these cool and calculating Aryan soldiers put a .308 into the side of every transformer at a few carefully chosen substations. You’ll never know because they kept their mouth shut. They’re not in it for fame or glory, their only drive is bringing this System to its knees. And who knows? Maybe that person could be YOU, lining up your sights on these metal behemoths from the tree line, squeezing the trigger, and retreating from the area with a s—-eating grin on your face knowing the chaos you’ve just unleashed. Never to boast about it, never to be caught. Perhaps even to rinse and repeat.”
Then on Dec. 9, she reportedly followed that up, writing, “Try to not lose your motivation as it is the only thing that keeps you going. When you feel like you do never forget why you started. Never forget about the brothers waiting to celebrate your attack… and never forget what has the industrial society has done to you, your people, and your tribe. Do not let those technophiles have a day of rest! Learn more about where power grids are located near you.”
On Christmas Day, a neo-Nazi banner was hung in Moore County, and multiple substations were shot in Washington. A week later, Allison reposted a screenshot of a Seattle Times news article entitled, “Pierce County Christmas Day substation attacks,” writing, “If two petty criminal tweakers (sic) can take out 4 substations in a day, imagine what an ambitious, fully radicalized Hard Reset and Make it Count reader like YOU can do! Just PLEASE remember to LEAVE. YOUR. PHONE. AT. HOME.”
Source: Fox 8 News Channel
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