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(MOORE COUNTY, N.C.) — Equipment damaged in an attack that caused a massive electrical blackout in a North Carolina county has been completely repaired or replaced and authorities said Wednesday that power is expected to be restored to tens of thousands of utility customers by midnight.

The announcement from Duke Energy, the local utility company, came as many residents in Moore County awoke for the fourth day Wednesday without electricity and as law enforcement continued to the search for the gun-wielding perpetrator or perpetrators who sabotaged two key power distribution substations Saturday night.

“Once we have completed all necessary testing, the gradual restoration of service to those Moore County communities still without power will begin,” Duke Energy said in a statement. “To avoid overwhelming the electrical system we will bring power back on gradually, with the goal of having the majority of customers restored before midnight tonight.”

While no new significant details on the investigation were released Wednesday, Moore County Chief Sheriff Deputy Richard Maness told ABC News that investigators are are closely analyzing evidence discovered at the two crime scenes and following up on tips from the public. No arrests have been announced and authorities have not commented on a possible motive.

“I can confirm that multiple shell casings were recovered,” said Maness, who declined to say what type of firearm was used in the attack or the caliber of the shell casings collected.

According to Poweroutage.us, a website that tracks outages across the country, 9,808 Duke Energy customers were still without electricity as of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, down from about 35,000 Tuesday night. Schools remained canceled on Wednesday and a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew has been imposed.

“We worry about the health and safety of people, particularly those in adult care homes and those who live by themselves, particularly our senior citizens and those who are vulnerable,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said in an interview Wednesday on ABC’s GMA3.

Cooper reiterated that the criminal or criminals knew what they were doing when the power stations were riddled with bullets.

“This was a malicious attack on an entire community, and it plunged tens of thousands of people into darkness. They knew what to do to disable this substation. … But we know that people are very frustrated here, and that’s very understandable,” Cooper said.

The crisis in Moore County has prompted local law enforcement to call in the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to help in the probe of what has been deemed a criminal act. The White House is also closely monitoring the situation, officials said.

Asked at a news conference on Monday whether the attacks are being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism, Cooper said, “I think investigators are leaving no stone unturned as to what this is as they are looking at every motivation that could possibly occur.”

Moore County law enforcement said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference that one person died inside a residence without power, but it remained unclear if the death is related to the electrical outage.

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields told ABC News earlier that murder charges could be filed against those responsible for the attack if anyone dies as a result of the power outage.

“What was done was an intentional act. It was not a random act,” Fields said.

Carthage business owner Rachel Haviley used her portable generator to serve up coffee and food to neighbors in need.

“My kids are home, they’re not in school. My husband was supposed to go to D.C., now he’s in daddy day care,” Haviley told WSOC. “I have a friend that was supposed to be at the hospital for class, now she’s not there. There are elderly people who rely on things that help keep them alive, so people’s lives and families have been impacted by this.”

The attacks occurred just after 7 p.m. Saturday, officials said.

The attacks came amid protests over a Downtown Divas drag show in the Moore County city of Southern Pines. The drag show had been scheduled for Saturday night and was disrupted due to the blackout.

Fields said no evidence has yet been uncovered linking the power outage to the drag show.

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(WASHINGTON) — An investigation by the Justice Department’s top watchdog uncovered “serious” failures in the Bureau of Prison’s handling of the prison transfer of notorious mobster James “Whitey” Bulger prior to his murder in custody in 2018, a new report released Wednesday said.

Bulger was found dead in his prison cell just 12 hours after his arrival at the U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia after suffering brutal injuries to his head and face. Three inmates in the prison have been charged in connection with his murder and are awaiting trial.

The Justice Department’s inspector general mounted a separate investigation into how the agency handled Bulger’s transfer. While its report Wednesday said investigators did not find evidence of “malicious intent” or purposely improper behavior on the part of BOP officials, they identified numerous failures at multiple levels of the prison system as well as puzzling bureaucratic issues in how Bulger’s transfer was allowed to go through.

“In our view, no BOP inmate’s transfer, whether they are a notorious offender or a non-violent offender, should be handled like Bulger’s transfer was handled in this instance,” Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.

Bulger was 89 years old and in a wheelchair at the time of his transfer from the high security federal prison at USP Coleman II in Florida to USP Hazelton, where he was immediately placed within the general population despite his notoriety as one of New England’s most sinister gangsters and previous history as an informant for the FBI.

Officials at USP Coleman began the process of seeking Bulger’s transfer in early 2018 after he reportedly issued a threat against a nurse at the facility, which led to his placement in a single cell in Coleman’s Special Housing Unit.

While Bulger was at the time designated as a ‘level 3’ medical care inmate due to his development of a heart condition while he was in federal custody, officials in BOP sought to downgrade his classification to make him eligible for placement at a higher number of other facilities, the report found.

Despite repeated efforts to reclassify Bulger as a ‘level 2’ medical care inmate, officials were instructed that Bulger’s health situation warranted him remaining at ‘level 3,’ the report said. But officials at Coleman seemingly ignored the recommendation and omitted other key information about Bulger’s health in their final transfer request before he was sent to Hazelton, a high-security level 2 care facility.

Investigators found that after Bulger’s transfer was approved, more than 100 employees at BOP received notifications and multiple inmates at Hazelton began sending communications about the transfer making clear they were aware he was due to arrive. Investigators said they were unable to determine which particular BOP employees at the prison were responsible for improperly disclosing news of Bulger’s transfer to inmates at Hazelton.

One alarming portion of the report found that a unit manager at Hazelton specifically requested Bulger be assigned to their unit even despite the fact that it housed another organized crime associate who would have familiarity with Bulger’s history. When interviewed by the inspector general’s office, the unit manager responded he was not a “gang expert” and was not aware of information “being discussed or put out” by others before Bulger arrived.

The inmate, Fotios Geas, was serving a life prison sentence on RICO charges and was associated with the Genovese Organized Crime Family and was one of the three individuals charged in Bulger’s death.

Investigators also found additional issues with how officials at Hazelton assessed the risk of harm Bulger faced from other inmates upon his transfer to the facility. According to the repot, BOP policy did not require Bulger to undergo a risk assessment by a BOP officer prior to his transfer which — if conducted, would have singled him out as likely ineligible for placement with the general population.

Bulger, who after 8 months in the single-cell Special Housing Unit at Coleman had reportedly started saying he had lost any will to live, also expressed a preference to be placed with the general population. Investigators also say he lied on an intake form that had asked whether he had ever been a member of a gang or if he provided cooperation to a law enforcement investigation.

Upon conclusion of their investigation the IG’s office made 11 recommendations to the Bureau of Prisons for improvements to their policies, all of which the agency accepted.

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(MOSCOW, Idaho) — As police in Moscow, Idaho, continue their search for the suspect who killed four University of Idaho students, they’ll begin to remove some of the victims’ personal belongings from the house where the crimes unfolded.

Belongings “no longer needed for the investigation” will begin to be collected Wednesday morning to get returned to the families, who have asked for some of the items, police said Tuesday.

“It’s time for us to get those things back that really mean something to those families, and hopefully help with some of their healing,” Moscow Police Chief James Fry said.

It’s been nearly one month since roommates Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle, as well as Kernodle’s boyfriend Ethan Chapin, were stabbed to death in the girls’ off-campus house in the early hours of Nov. 13.

No suspects have been identified.

Two surviving roommates — who police said are not suspects — were home at the time and likely slept through the attacks, according to authorities. They were on the ground floor while the four victims were on the second and third floors.

Police added Tuesday that “the house remains an active crime scene” and said “progress continues to be made in the investigation.”

Police urge anyone with information to upload digital media to fbi.gov/moscowidaho or contact the tip line at tipline@ci.moscow.id.us or 208-883-7180.

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(NEW YORK) — The family of a Black woman who was fatally shot in her home by a former Fort Worth, Texas, police officer in 2019 said they’ve been waiting for justice for over three years.

Atatiana Jefferson’s sister Ashley Carr said it’s “surreal” to finally see the case go to trial.

“We’ve been fighting and fussing about having this day and making sure that accountability is served for my sister’s death,” she told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “But now it’s really here, and it’s a realization that this is not in our control. This is in control of the jurors.”

Opening statements began on Monday in the trial of former police officer Aaron Dean who was charged with murder after fatally shooting Jefferson in her Fort, Worth Texas, home on Oct. 12, 2019. Dean was responding to a concerned neighbor’s request to check on Jefferson’s wellbeing after noticing her house’s front door open at night, police said.

Dean pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Though some of the 12 selected jurors are people of color, none are Black, which drew backlash and prompted protests in 2019.

The trial so far has hinged on the handgun in Jefferson’s hand right before Dean shot her. During opening arguments, his defense attorney, Miles Brissette, argued Dean was acting in self-defense after seeing Jefferson’s silhouette in the window holding a firearm with a green laser pointed directly at him. The prosecution, on the other hand, argued Dean couldn’t have seen her gun in the split second before he opened fire.

The trial’s first witness was Zion Carr, Jefferson’s then 8-year-old nephew who was playing video games and cooking hamburgers with his aunt right before Dean shot her in their house. During questioning, Carr, 11, was asked to recount the traumatic events from that night, testifying that his aunt had never raised the gun from her side.

Brissette declined ABC News’ request for comment.

Ed Kraus, the Fort Worth Police chief at the time of the shooting who has since retired, said in 2019 that Dean’s conduct was in violation of multiple police department policies, including “our use of force policy, our de-escalation policy, and unprofessional conduct.”

“I certainly have not been able to make sense of why she had to lose her life,” Kraus said at the time. “On behalf of the men and women of the Fort Worth Police Department, I’m so sorry for what occurred.”

Jefferson, a pre-medical graduate of Xavier University, is survived by her three siblings: Ashley, Amber and Adarius, who say they’ve been one another’s “support system” their entire lives. Their mother, Yolanda Carr, who died just months after Jefferson’s death, nicknamed her children the “A-Team” because their names all start with the letter A.

“We understand as a family that there is nothing that we can do in this process but be present,” Ashley Carr said. “So our goal is to be present to make sure everyone knows that Atatiana was loved.”

Ashley Carr said she and her family have tried to “keep the momentum” going to ensure Jefferson’s name is not forgotten, including speaking at the White House and U.S. Senate.

“They joined the fight for families all across the country,” Lee Merritt, the family’s attorney, told Good Morning America. “They’ve been a part of a community of activists and organizers who were at the forefront of what became a major moment in history during the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Jefferson’s siblings also started a nonprofit called the Atatiana Project that strives to promote STEAM education and activities among urban youth. They’ve even hosted a free summer camp where kids could build their own computers and robots.

“Our goal is just to amplify how beautiful Atatiana was,” Carr said, remembering her sister as an avid video gamer, animal lover and aspiring medical student. “If you go on our website, we say she didn’t die. She will multiply through the generations that we serve.”

“She was my little sister, but was such a big person,” she added.

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