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A student could face “decades behind bars” after being accused of firebombing a Tesla dealership in Missouri.
Owen McIntire is accused of setting fire to two Tesla Cybertrucks worth more than $100,000 each and damaging two charging stations worth $550 each on March 17 at around 11:16 p.m. in Kansas City, the Department of Justice said.
McIntire, a 19-year-old student at Boston’s University of Massachusetts, appeared in federal court Friday and has been charged with one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device and one count of malicious damage by fire of any property used in interstate commerce.
“Let me be extremely clear to anyone who still wants to firebomb a Tesla property: you will not evade us,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will spend decades behind bars. It is not worth it.”
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Prosecutors allege that McIntire used a Molotov cocktail to start the fire. A Kansas City police officer in the area spotted smoke coming from one of the Cybertrucks in the dealership’s parking lots and also discovered a burnt rag next to the Molotov cocktail, according to an affidavit.
The officer attempted to extinguish the flames but was unsuccessful and a second vehicle caught fire. Fire fighters arrived at the scene and put out the blaze, the affidavit said.
McIntire was home for spring break at the time of the incident, according to the DOJ. Three witnesses gave descriptions that matched what McIntire was wearing that night, according to the affidavit.
“The individual was wearing dark flowy clothing and a large, white-colored hat and carrying a light-colored bag,” the affidavit said. The hat was later found in the backyard of a witness the day after the fire.
Another witness filmed a video of the fire and posted it on X, the affidavit said. The witness claimed they saw McIntire fleeing the scene.
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The student was also allegedly captured on surveillance at Kansas City International Airport after the incident. Law enforcement found evidence pointing to McIntire after reviewing the student’s social media profiles, cell phone data and flight information, the affadavit said.
McIntire was apprehended after returning to school in Boston.
Bondi is cracking down on what she described as “a wave of domestic terrorism” against Elon Musk’s Tesla vehicles. The backlash comes after the billionaire has taken a central role in the Trump administration through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Last week, the DOJ charged a man with vandalizing a Tesla dealership in New Mexico and setting fire to the headquarters of the state Republican Party.
A criminal complaint charges Jamison R. Wagner, 40, with federal arson charges in connection with the vandalism in February at a Tesla showroom in Bernalillo, where authorities found two Tesla Model Y vehicles ablaze as well as spray-painted graffiti messages including “Die Elon” and “Die Tesla Nazi,” the Associated Press reports.
The Justice Department has charged four other cases against people accused of using Molotov cocktails to destroy Tesla cars and fire stations.
