Man accused of setting fire to Tesla vehicles in Las Vegas arrested,
police say
[March 28, 2025]
By RIO YAMAT
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man who set fire to Tesla vehicles in Las Vegas and
who painted the word “resist” for authorities to find at the scene has
been arrested.
Paul Hyon Kim, 36, faces charges in connection with the March 18 attack
in both state and federal court in Nevada, authorities announced
Thursday, a day after his arrest. Kim was being held in the custody of
the federal government.
In state court, Kim is facing charges of arson, possession of an
explosive device and firing a weapon into a vehicle, Clark County
Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.
Kim is also charged with federal unlawful possession of an unregistered
firearm and arson, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.
Wearing a black T-shirt, black jeans and tennis shoes, Kim appeared
briefly Thursday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. He told a judge
that he completed 12 years of schooling. Kim is scheduled to return to
federal court Friday for a detention hearing.
The federal public defender's office in Las Vegas, which has been
appointed to represent Kim, declined Thursday to comment.
Security video played at the police news conference showed the suspect,
dressed all in black and covering his face, paint the word “resist”
across the glass doors of a Tesla service center. McMahill said the
suspect threw Molotov cocktails — crude bombs filled with gasoline or
another flammable liquid — and fired several rounds from a weapon into
multiple vehicles. No one was injured.
McMahill said Thursday they were “actively investigating” a motive and
whether it is connected to other recent cases of vandalism targeting
Tesla property across the country.
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Police are investigating after several vehicles were set on fire at
a Tesla service center, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu
Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File
There has been an uptick of attacks on property with the Tesla logo
across the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office and tapped
Tesla CEO Elon Musk for a prominent role overseeing a new Department
of Government Efficiency that has slashed government spending.
Some of the most prominent incidents have taken place in
left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest.
An Oregon man allegedly threw several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla
store in Salem, then returned another day and shot out windows. In
the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired
at a Tesla showroom, damaging vehicles and windows.
Prosecutors in Colorado have also charged a woman in connection with
attacks on Tesla dealerships that authorities say also included
Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars”
spray-painted on a building. And federal agents in South Carolina
have arrested a man accused of setting fire to Tesla charging
stations near Charleston.
In Las Vegas, Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI
division there, declined Thursday to comment on the similarities of
the cases. But he told reporters last week that the Las Vegas case
“has some of the hallmarks” of terrorism.
“Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of
the hallmarks that we might think — the writing on the wall,
potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Evans said. “None
of those factors are lost on us.”
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