Reward offered for info leading to arrest, conviction in Moore County substation attack

By Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan

Updated December 1, 2023 1:34 PM

Workers with Randolph Electric Membership Corporation work to repair the Eastwood Substation in West End Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. Two deliberate attacks on electrical substations in Moore County Saturday evening caused days-long power outages for tens of thousands of customers. Travis Long tlong@newsobserver.com

Moore County Power Outages

Thousands of people in Moore County, NC lost power for days in December 2022 after electrical substations were attacked. Here is the latest coverage from The News & Observer.

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A reward of up to $75,000 is being offered to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for destroying the electric substations in Moore County that has knocked out power for several days.

The damage has led to losses for businesses, people temporarily displaced from their homes and schools closed.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced the rewards on Wednesday afternoon. The rewards are up to $25,000 each from the state, Duke Energy and Moore County.

Duke Energy power substations were attacked with gunfire about 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3. It left more than 45,000 homes and businesses without power. Much of the power was restored by Wednesday afternoon as substations were repaired.

Local, state and federal law enforcement are working together with the Moore County Sheriff’s Office to investigate what happened. Moore County Public Safety will have another press briefing at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Carthage, streamed online.

An aerial view of an electrical power substation in West End where crews are working to repair damage after two deliberate attacks on electrical substations in Moore County Saturday evening. One energy expert in Charlotte was surprised to see the attack resulted in thousands of people losing power given that a similar event 10 years ago did not result in a large loss of power. Travis Long tlong@newsobserver.com

Cooper told reporters on Tuesday that the attack was “too easy” for the substations to be disabled with gunfire.

On Wednesday, he said an “attack on our critical infrastructure will not be tolerated.”

“I appreciate the coordinated efforts of law enforcement to leave no stone unturned in finding the criminals who did this and I thank Moore County and Duke Energy for matching the state’s reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible,” Cooper said in a news release about the rewards.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is also seeking information about the incident.

Click here to read more of our coverage on the Moore County power outages.

A poster released by the FBI seeing information or suspects of the shooting of electrical substations in Moore County. FBI

Anyone who has information about the case should contact the Moore County Sheriff’s Office at 910-947-4444 or the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 800-CALL FBI.

This story was originally published December 7, 2022 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Reward offered for info leading to arrest, conviction in Moore County substation attack."

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan

The News & Observer

919-829-4877

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan is the Capitol Bureau Chief for The News & Observer, leading coverage of the legislative and executive branches in North Carolina with a focus on the governor, General Assembly leadership and state budget. She has received the McClatchy President’s Award, N.C. Open Government Coalition Sunshine Award and several North Carolina Press Association awards, including for politics and investigative reporting.