2013 Electric Grid Shooting Attack Remains Unsolved

At 12:58 a.m. on April 16, 2013, while the nation was reeling from the Boston Marathon bombings only hours earlier, an unknown number of suspects assaulted the Metcalf Transmission Substation in Santa Clara County, California, which feeds power to Silicon Valley. The attackers initially used heavy wire cutters to snip fiber-optic cables operated by AT&T in a below-ground bunker. The team briefly disabled the 911 emergency system and phone lines. The suspects knew the specific manholes to open to reach the right cables. They were “clearly knowledgeable” about the layout of the substation and its communication systems, said one federal official.

By 1:31 a.m., a surveillance camera pointed along a chain-link fence around the substation recorded a streak of light that investigators from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office determined was a signal from a waved flashlight. It was followed by the muzzle flash of rifles and sparks from bullets hitting the fence. Additionally, following the attack, investigators found small piles of rocks near to where the shots had been fired, the type of formations that can be used to scout firing positions.