Police charge 36-year-old with arson and unlawful possession of an unregistered gun in Tesla vandalism incident

• Las Vegas Metropolitan police arrested a 36-year-old Las Vegas resident on Wednesday in connection to Tesla vandalism.
• Kim faces charges including arson and unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm after five Teslas were damaged.
• The DOJ said anyone involved in "domestic terrorism targeting Tesla" will face "severe legal consequences."

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrested a suspect on Wednesday on suspicion of being involved in a recent Tesla vandalism incident involving five damaged vehicles at a dealership.

The 36-year-old suspect, named Paul Hyon Kim, was charged with arson, unlawful possession of incendiary devices and an unregistered firearm, property destruction, and discharging a firearm into a vehicle, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said in a press conference on Thursday.

The Las Vegas resident made his first appearance in a US District Court on Thursday, the US Department of Justice said in a press release.

The court docket had not yet identified a lawyer for Kim as of Friday morning.

The arrest comes after the word "resist" was spray-painted across the storefront of a Las Vegas Tesla on Badura Avenue last week, and five Teslas were damaged. Police said the suspect was seen on camera shooting the vehicles and placing a Molotov cocktail inside them to start a fire.

Koren said that the suspect was not able to ignite one of the incendiary devices, which the police were able to recover. Three of the vehicles were destroyed by fire, the assistant sheriff said. Police identified the suspect's vehicle, which they said he drove away from the scene in, as a black Hyundai Elantra.

Koren said "a preliminary assessment" of Kim's social media "indicates some very loose but self-proclaimed ties" to some communist and pro-Palestine groups.

"That is part of our investigations to dig further into it and to be able to determine additional motive and other potential concerns," Koren said in the press conference.

Koren said searches of Kim's property revealed multiple rifles, a shotgun, a handgun, and miscellaneous gun parts. They also discovered ammunition, a backpack, and other items "consistent with the suspect's description," and other "key pieces of evidence" still being evaluated. He said the DNA taken from Kim also matches the DNA collected from the scene.

In response to a post about the incident last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on X "This level of violence is insane and deeply wrong. Tesla just makes electric cars and has done nothing to deserve these evil attacks."

The Department of Justice previously called attacks on Tesla "nothing short of domestic terrorism," as a number of vandalism incidents have taken place across the country and several arrests have been made.

Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated that sentiment in the Thursday press release from the Department of Justice.

"The Department of Justice has been clear: anyone who participates in the wave of domestic terrorism targeting Tesla properties will suffer severe legal consequences," Bondi said in the statement. "We will continue to find, arrest, and prosecute these attackers until the lesson is learned."

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