Law Student Rams Car into Nevada Substation in Suspected Terror Act

A 23-year-old law student from Albany, New York, drove a rented car into a power substation in Boulder City, Nevada, on Thursday morning before fatally shooting himself, authorities said Friday, classifying the incident as a suspected act of terrorism.

The man, identified as Dawson Maloney, accelerated his silver Nissan Sentra toward the substation around 10 a.m., crashing through a perimeter fence and into a stack of large industrial wire reels, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill. Security footage captured the vehicle plowing into the obstacles, preventing it from reaching the main facility. When officers arrived after reports of gunshots, they found Maloney dead inside the car from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. He was wearing soft body armor at the time.

Investigators recovered an arsenal from the vehicle, including two shotguns, an AR-style pistol, multiple loaded magazines of .223 ammunition, a box of shotgun shells, two flamethrowers, a crowbar, a hatchet, and a cell phone. A subsequent search of Maloney's nearby hotel room uncovered materials for making explosives, such as thermite, ammonium nitrate, magnesium ribbon,...