WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating another power substation in North Carolina that was damaged by gunfire, the third such facility to be targeted in the state since early December.
The latest incident occurred about 3 a.m. Tuesday in Thomasville, located in central North Carolina, according to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, which said the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is conducting a parallel investigation. Damage was discovered and evidence was recovered at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities found “14 or 15” holes where projectiles entered equipment, said Amanda Varner, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, who didn’t specify what kind of equipment was damaged.
“We don’t have any idea if it’s a copycat or if it’s related” to the previous attack in the state, Varner said in a phone interview.
Tuesday’s events follow a shooting that disabled two Duke Energy Corp. substations in North Carolina early last month that plunged 45,000 people into darkness. Charges have yet to be filed in those attacks.
No service outages occurred as a result of the latest shooting, according to EnergyUnited Electric Membership Corp., which said the incident was discovered after an alarm was triggered at its Pleasant Hill Substation.
“Crews were dispatched to assess the situation and discovered damage to the substation transformer from an apparent gunshot,” the utility said.
