Man accused of setting fire to Tesla vehicles in Las Vegas arrested, police say

Several vehicles set on fire at a Tesla service centre, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)

LAS VEGAS — A man who set fire to Tesla vehicles in Las Vegas and who painted the word “resist” for authorities to find at the scene has been arrested, police announced Thursday.

Paul Hyon Kim, 36, faces charges in connection with the March 18 attack in both state and federal court. He was taken into the custody of the federal government Thursday.

In state court, Kim is facing charges of arson, possession of an explosive device and firing a weapon into a vehicle, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.

Kim is also charged with federal unlawful possession of an unregistered firearm and arson, according to a criminal complaint. He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas later Thursday.

An attorney for Kim who could comment on his behalf was not listed Thursday in court records.

Security video played at the news conference showed the suspect, dressed all in black and covering his face, paint the word “resist” across the glass doors of a Tesla service center early on March 18. McMahill said the suspect threw Molotov cocktails — crude bombs filled with gasoline or another flammable liquid — and fired several rounds from a weapon into multiple vehicles.

McMahill said Thursday they were “actively investigating” a motive and whether it is connected to other recent cases of vandalism targeting Tesla property across the country.

There has been a clear uptick of violent attacks on property carrying the Tesla logo across the U.S. and overseas since President Donald Trump took office and empowered Musk to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency that has slashed government spending.

The attacks are keeping law enforcement busy.

Prosecutors in Colorado charged a woman last month in connection with attacks on Tesla dealerships, including Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray-painted on a building. And federal agents in South Carolina have arrested a man they say set fire to Tesla charging stations near Charleston

Some of the most prominent incidents have been reported in left-leaning cities in the Pacific Northwest, like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, where anti-Trump and anti-Musk sentiment runs high.

An Oregon man faces charges after allegedly throwing several Molotov cocktails at a Tesla store in Salem, then returning another day and shooting out windows. In the Portland suburb of Tigard, more than a dozen bullets were fired at a Tesla showroom last week, damaging vehicles and windows, the second time in a week that the store was targeted.

Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI division, declined Thursday to comment on the similarities of the cases. But he told reporters last week that the Las Vegas case “has some of the hallmarks” of terrorism.

“Was this terrorism? Was it something else? It certainly has some of the hallmarks that we might think — the writing on the wall, potential political agenda, an act of violence,” Evans said. “None of those factors are lost on us.”

Rio Yamat, The Associated Press