Self-Described Terrorist Carries Out Car Attack in Nevada

Earlier today a man drove his car through a gate into a power substation a few miles from Hoover Dam in Nevada. It happened in the town of Boulder City.

Officers responded and found a silver Nissan Sentra stopped against large industrial wire reels.

Inside the vehicle, they observed a deceased individual wearing soft body armor and holding a shotgun in the driver’s seat, with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. Multiple firearms were also visible inside the car, McMahill stated.

The driver was identified as Dawson Maloney age 23. He was a law student from Albany, New York. 

The 23-year-old student, Dawson Maloney, is listed on the website of Albany Law School as being a member of the class of 2027…

Law enforcement officials searched Maloney’s rented vehicle, which carried New York license plates, as well as a hotel room where he had recently stayed.

“The search from the rental vehicle revealed two shotguns, an AR-style pistol, numerous loaded AR magazines … a box of shotgun shells, two devices … described as flamethrowers … a crowbar and a hatchet and a cellular phone, which is currently being forensically analyzed,” the sheriff said. “Additionally, we discovered the suspect was wearing soft body armor at the time of this incident.”

In addition to all the weapons, they also found books:

A search warrant was executed at the motel where he was staying, leading investigators to find multiple books related to extremist ideologies, including left- and right-wing extremism, environmental extremism, white supremacy, and anti-government sentiment. Explosive materials were also discovered.

During a press briefing the sheriff displayed a photo of the books they found. And they are pretty weird. One of them was this book of spells from the 14th century. Another was this 17th century book on demonology. 

There there was this book which is described as “the story of a man who aims to usher in the collapse of America.” Perhaps more significant is this novel by the same author which “follows a gang of jihadist surfers who use insider trading profit to disable the national power grid.”

The author of both books is Mike Ma, apparently a pen name for Mike Mahoney:

Harassment Architecture was self-published by Mike Ma in 2019. Mike Ma is the pen name of far-right internet influencer Mike Mahoney, a former Breitbart writer…

Ma is also the founder of the Pine Tree Party accelerationist movement, founded in 2017, which had previously brought him prominence among ecofascists. He is a militant accelerationist, has been outspoken in his praise for the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. With the Pine Tree Party, he encouraged mass shootings and other violence to promote “the advancement of the white race” and to safeguard nature. Ma is a proponent of raw foodism.

This is coming from Wikipedia so I can’t vouch for it’s accuracy.

In any case, evidence suggests this was a pre-planned attack. Maloney had warned his family ahead of time that they would see him on the news.

McMahill said the suspect had recently been reported missing out of New York and had communicated with family members before the incident, making statements referencing self-harm and suggesting he intended to commit an act that would put him “on the news,” including a message to his mother in which he referred to himself as a “dead terrorist son” and said he felt obligated to carry out the attack.

Because of those comments and the apparent attempt to damage the power station, police are investigating this as a possible counterterrorist attack.

Las Vegas police are investigating a possible terrorism attack that occurred in Boulder City, officials Friday.

Details of the investigation were limited but Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during his annual State of the Department address that the incident “looks to have been a credible counterterrorism threat.”

No damage was done to the power facility. And that’s about all we know for the moment. We’ll have to wait and see if there were some mental issues involved here but given that he was driving around with spell books it wouldn’t surprise me. Here’s the press conference by the local sheriff.

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