- Las Vegas Metropolitan Police announced they had arrested a 36-year-old Nevada man and charged him with 15 felony counts including arson, use of explosives, and discharging a firearm after he allegedly vandalized a Tesla collision center by shooting out cameras and setting five cars on fire. The arrest comes a week after Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced charges against three others for allegedly using molotov cocktails on Teslas in Colorado, Oregon, and South Carolina.
Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill on Thursday announced the arrest of Paul Hyon Kim, 36, of Nevada for allegedly shooting a .30 caliber rifle into the back of five Teslas and hurling molotov cocktails into the cars to set them on fire. Tesla is helmed by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk. President Donald Trump has said anti-Musk actions against Tesla would be treated as “domestic terrorism” and floated the idea of sending three other individuals who have been charged with attacks to prison in El Salvador, which might not be legal.
Kim has been taken into federal custody, according to the Department of Justice, and he faces federal charges for arson and having an unregistered firearm, in addition to 15 felony counts he faces in Nevada. Kim could be sentenced 20 years in prison.
“The Department of Justice has been clear: anyone who participates in the wave of domestic terrorism targeting Tesla properties will suffer severe legal consequences,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement. “We will continue to find, arrest, and prosecute these attackers until the lesson is learned.”
Police said Kim dressed in a black facemask and gloves and allegedly drove his black Hyundai Elantra onto a Tesla collision center lot, parked the car, and shot out two surveillance cameras with his rifle. Then he tagged the word, “Resist” across the glass double doors in pink spray paint, assistant sheriff Dori Koren said during a press conference in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Afterward, Kim allegedly walked over to where the Teslas were parked and started shooting into the cars before pulling what police say were molotov cocktails out of his backpack to firebomb them. Authorities claim he set five cars on fire and completely burned the insides out of three, destroying them completely.
Koren said police searched two vehicles linked to Kim as well as his apartment and matched DNA taken from the inside of Kim’s cheek with DNA left at the Tesla collision center. Koren said the searches turned up multiple rifles, a shotgun, handgun, gun parts and ammunition that matched the caliber found at the Tesla center. Police said Kim’s gun belt and backpack had traces of pink paint residue. The DOJ said the search also found a handwritten note with what seemed to be an escape plan.
According to Koren, a Las Vegas swat team arrested Kim in his apartment on Thursday morning after authorities matched his buccal-swab DNA with a sample from the crime scene.
“As promised, acts of violence and vandalism will not be tolerated, and today law enforcement personnel acted quickly to arrest an individual on charges including arson,” said FBI Director Kash Patel in a statement. “Under Attorney General Bondi’s leadership, we will continue to pursue these investigations with the full force of law and will bring to justice anyone responsible for these attacks.”
Dozens of protests have broken out among Tesla dealerships and properties across the country, in response to vast government cuts engineered by Musk’s DOGE team. In response, Trump has issued statements in support of Musk and DOGE and reportedly bought a Tesla Model S.
Last week, Bondi announced the arrests of three others charged with using molotov cocktails and setting cars and charging stations on fire, saying all three would face “the full force of the law.”
The DOJ said a woman in Loveland, Colorado was arrested for trying to light Teslas on fire with molotov cocktails, while a South Carolina man spray painted anti-Trump graffiti before lighting a charging station on fire in Charleston. A woman in Oregon was arrested after she allegedly threw eight molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership in Salem. Authorities said she was armed with an AR-15 rifle.
Each face up to 20 years in prison, according to the DOJ.
“The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended,” Bondi said. “Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.”
