TACOMA, Wash. — Two Puyallup men alleged to have attacked four Pierce County power substations over Christmas weekend will appear in U.S. District Court Tuesday.
Matthew Greenwood, 32, and Jeremy Crahan, 40, were arrested Dec. 31, and face charges of conspiracy to damage energy facilities and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Prosecutors will ask that both suspects remain detained at the Federal Detention Center at Sea-Tac pending future hearings.
“I commend the work by the FBI to quickly identify these suspects and disrupt any future attacks on the east Pierce County power grid,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. “We have seen attacks such as these increase in Western Washington and throughout the country and must treat each incident seriously. The outages on Christmas left thousands in the dark and cold and put some who need power for medical devices at extreme risk.”
In the early hours of Christmas Day, two Tacoma Power utilities substations and one Puget Sound Energy (PSE) substation were attacked. Later that evening, another PSE substation was set on fire. Over 17,000 people lost power as a result of the attacks.
The substations that were targeted include the Graham and Elk Plain substations operated by Tacoma Power and the Kapowsin and Hemlock substations operated by PSE.
US Attorney Nick Brown says that federal authorities are on guard, because attacks on power stations are becoming more common in the region.
“There is a heightened concern, certainly in this area of the Northwest to be on guard against these sorts of attacks,” Brown said. “We’ve seen similar attacks here last year, also down in Oregon, some similar attacks. I don’t know at this stage if there’s any sort of connection in any of those incidents, but seeing an overall increase in these kinds of attacks has our attention.”
Brown says the investigation is part of a national drive to focus on these types of incidents, because power stations are particularly vulnerable targets in our national infrastructure, and having one out of commission could potentially be life-threatening.
“We need to recognize that people’s lives could be dramatically impacted by a power outage,” he said. “To see an intentional act to shut down power in a pretty significant area is very alarming for us.”
According to a criminal complaint that was unsealed Tuesday, the two men were identified through cell phone records that place them in the vicinity of each of the four electrical substations at the time of the attacks.
One of the suspects also can be seen in surveillance footage from one of the substations, as well as a vehicle that arrived at the Elk Plain station around the time of the attack.
When a search warrant was executed on the home of the suspects, distinctive clothing seen in the surveillance footage was recovered, as well as two short-barreled firearms that were not registered as required by law.
Conspiracy to attack energy facilities is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Possession of an unregistered firearm is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.