(MOORE COUNTY, N.C.) — The gun attack that crippled two power substations and knocked out electricity to tens of thousands of utility customers in Moore County, North Carolina, is being investigated as a criminal act and law enforcement, including the FBI, are working around the clock to identify suspects and determine a motive behind the sabotage.

The criminal vandalism has caused major disruptions throughout the county, including the closures of public schools and prompted officials to impose a nightly curfew.

Here is a timeline of how the crisis unfolded and the race by utility crews to repair what authorities described as “millions of dollars in damages”:

Dec. 3 — Just after 7 p.m. on Saturday, Duke Energy company, the local utility provider, responded to a failure at an electrical substation near the city of Carthage, which was soon followed by the failure of a second substation, authorities said. The incident plunged roughly 45,000 utility customers into darkness as freezing temperatures set in.

Dec. 4 — Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields announces at a news conference that gunfire caused extensive damage to the two substations, describing the incident as “intentional vandalism.” On Sunday afternoon, Fields says the FBI and the state Department of Public Safety were assisting in the investigation, and notes multiple shots were fired at each substation and that a gate to one of them was rammed open. A countywide state of emergency is declared and officials announce a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew would be imposed. The sheriff says investigators are looking into whether the attacks are related to protests over a Downtown Divas drag show in the Moore County city of Southern Pines Saturday night, but that no evidence had been uncovered linking the two events.

Dec. 5 — Schools throughout Moore County are cancelled as Duke Energy officials say the damage to the substations is substantial and would take multiple days to replace equipment that was completely destroyed. The federal Department of Homeland Security and the White House announce they were monitoring the situation and providing federal assistance. Fields tells ABC News that the perpetrator or perpetrators knew exactly what they were doing and could face murder charges if someone dies as a result of the power outage. Gov. Roy Cooper says at a news conference that “this kind of attack raises a new level of threat” and that officials would begin working on ways to harden security to protect key infrastructure throughout the state.

Dec. 6 — Schools are cancelled for the second day following a second night in which a curfew was imposed on county residents. Duke Energy says more than 35,000 customers are still without electricity.

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(SAN FRANCISCO) — San Francisco supervisors have nixed their plan to allow police officers to use robots to kill in emergency situations, a board member confirmed on Tuesday.

“The people of San Francisco have spoken loud and clear: There is no place for killer police robots in our city,” supervisor Dean Preston told ABC News in a statement. “There have been more killings at the hands of police than any other year on record nationwide. We should be working on ways to decrease the use of force by local law enforcement, not giving them new tools to kill people.”

The news comes a day after community groups protested outside San Francisco’s City Hall condemning the ordinance, which the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved in an 8-3 vote on Nov. 29.

Before the board’s vote reversing course, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California told ABC News that it was a terrible idea to let cops use robots for deadly force.

“Allowing them to kill remotely will lead to more mistakes, and as we have seen many times before with other police weapons, to more frequent use,” ACLU NorCal said.

In a letter to Mayor London Breed and city board members, dozens of racial justice groups, civil rights and civil liberties organizations, LGBTQ organizations and labor unions called for board members to change their vote, saying the use of robots would be dangerous to not only San Francisco residents, but to people who visit the city.

“SFPD’s proposal would allow officers to send these robots to all arrests and all searches with warrants, and to protests if police decide that ‘exigent circumstances’ or other flexible justifications in the policy apply,” the organizations wrote in the letter.

The SFPD did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment about the board’s reversal, but did defend the passage of the Law Enforcement Equipment Policy in a Dec. 1 press release, saying that it only planned to deploy the robots for potential lethal force “in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of life.”

“The use of robots in potentially deadly force situations is a last resort option. We live in a time when unthinkable mass violence is becoming more commonplace,” San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said at the time. “We need the option to be able to save lives in the event we have that type of tragedy in our city.”

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(MOORE COUNTY, N.C.) — About 35,000 utility customers in a North Carolina county were bracing for a fourth night Tuesday without electricity as a search for those responsible for sabotaging two key power substations continued and crews scrambled to repair what authorities described as “millions of dollars” in damages.

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.

“This kind of attack raises a new level of threat,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

Asked 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.”

Residents throughout Moore County remained under curfew Tuesday night, as area schools were canceled through Thursday, officials said.

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.

Jeff Brooks, a spokesperson for Duke Energy, the local utility, said crews are working around the clock to restore energy. He said electricity has been restored to about 10,000 customers.

Brooks said crews are making good progress and now believe they can restore power to all customers by midnight Wednesday. He said about 35,000 were still without power Tuesday evening, down from 45,000 customers who initially lost power.

Freezing temperatures in the county about 60 miles southwest of Raleigh forced many residents to seek warmth and food at a shelter opened in Carthage.

“It’s better to have warmth and comfort than make sure your belongings are safe,” Gunner Scevertson, one of the residents who left his home to seek warmth at the shelter, told Charlotte ABC affiliate WSOC.

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.”

Vandals wielding firearms are suspected of causing major damage to two electrical distribution substations, knocking out power to homes and businesses across the county, officials said.

Brooks said that while some of the damaged equipment could be repaired, other pieces had to be replaced.

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

Fields said the perpetrator or perpetrators shot up two key substations in the area, adding, they “knew exactly what they were doing.”

No arrests have been announced in the probe.

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) — Just three days before two electrical substations were shot up, causing tens of thousands of customers to lose power in North Carolina, the federal Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning “lone offenders and small groups” could be plotting attacks and that the nation’s critical infrastructure was among the possible targets.

The warning became a reality on Saturday when widespread power outages in North Carolina were reported after a perpetrator or perpetrators shot up the power stations in Moore County. The incident left up to 45,000 utility customers without electricity and prompted local officials to declare a state of emergency.

The Homeland Security “National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin” issued on Nov. 30 said individuals and groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and personal grievances “continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the Homeland.”

“Targets of potential violence include public gatherings, faith-based institutions, the LGBTQI+ community, schools, racial and religious minorities, government facilities and personnel, U.S. critical infrastructure, the media, and perceived ideological opponents,” the bulletin reads.

The bulletin followed one issued by the Department of Homeland Security in January, warning that domestic extremists have been developing “credible, specific plans” to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, according to the Associated Press.

While law enforcement investigating the Moore County sabotage has yet to identify a suspect or a motive, the attack has been described by local authorities as an “eye-opener” and prompted calls to harden the state’s infrastructure to deter future incidents.

“This kind of attack raises a new level of threat,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

But similar attacks and foiled plots suggest electrical grids and other infrastructure across the United States have been targeted over the past decade.

In April 2013, a group of suspects wielding high-powered rifles staged an attack in California’s Silicon Valley, shooting up the Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Metcalf substation, riddling transformers with bullets, officials said. PG&E said the attack caused $15 million in damage and prompted the utility company to spend $100 million to beef up security at its substations, including installing intruder detection systems.

No arrests were made in the California attack.

“Metcalf was an interesting attack because they also attacked the fiber communications vault just up the street to try to interfere with the alarm and communication with the substation,” Kevin Perry, retired director of critical infrastructure protection at Southwest Power Pool in Arkansas, told ABC News.

Unlike in Moore County, the attack failed to cause a major power outage.

“There’s a lot of redundancy that’s built into the grid. And in the case of Metcalf, even though the substation was taken out of service, (PG&E) was able to bypass the substation and continue to energize the area,” Perry said.

Perry said most electrical distribution substations across the country are vulnerable to attacks because they are usually in remote areas and have little security.

“Substations tend to be out in the middle of nowhere, and that means they’re, for the most part, unattended,” Perry said. “If you take out enough equipment then you lose the redundancy and when you lose the redundancy you don’t have any way of feeding power to that particular area, and that’s when you end up with a regional blackout.”

In February, three men each pleaded guilty in Ohio to a federal charge of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists as part of a scheme to attack power grids in the United States in furtherance of white supremacist ideology, according to the Department of Justice. The men – one from Ohio, one from Texas and the third from Wisconsin — met online and plotted to use high-powered rifles to attack electrical substations in different regions of the United States, the DOJ said in a statement.

“The defendants believed their plan would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest for Americans in the region. They had conversations about how the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause war, even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression,” the DOJ’s statement reads.

The plot was thwarted when two of the men were pulled over by police in Ohio for a traffic violation and one swallowed a “suicide pill” but ultimately survived, according to federal prosecutors.

In 2019, a Utah man pleaded guilty to one federal count of destruction of an energy facility stemming from a 2016 rifle attack on a Buckskin Electrical substation in Kane County and was sentenced to 96 months in prison, according to federal officials. The attack caused nearly $400,000 in damage and triggered a power outage in Kane and Garfield counties, officials said.

As part of the plea agreement, the defendant admitted causing damage to three substations in Nevada, but was not charged in those incidents, according to federal prosecutors.

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