Kansas City Man Charged in Tesla Arson Case Involving Molotov Cocktails

The case marks the second Tesla-related arrest this week as a federal task force targets rising threats against the Elon Musk-led automaker.

The seal of the FBI hangs in the Flag Room at the bureau's headquarters in Washington on March 9, 2007. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

A Kansas City man attending college in Boston has been arrested and charged in federal court for allegedly firebombing two Tesla Cybertrucks at a dealership in Missouri last month using homemade incendiary devices.

Owen McIntire, 19, was taken into custody in Boston and made his initial appearance in Massachusetts federal court on April 18, according to a statement Friday from the Justice Department.

McIntire faces one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device and one count of malicious damage by fire to property used in interstate commerce.

“Let me be extremely clear to anyone who still wants to firebomb a Tesla property: you will not evade us,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “You will be arrested. You will be prosecuted. You will spend decades behind bars. It is not worth it.”

According to an affidavit unsealed Friday in the Western District of Missouri, investigators alleged that McIntire traveled to Kansas City in mid-March and launched a Molotov cocktail at a Tesla dealership late on the night of March 17, setting fire to a grey Tesla Cybertruck. The fire then spread to a second vehicle and damaged two charging stations.

“This wasn’t vandalism—it was a violent criminal act,” Dan Driscoll, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said in a statement. “Thanks to the relentless work of ATF special agents, and our close coordination with the FBI and local law enforcement, we now have a suspect in custody.”

The affidavit details how a Kansas City police officer spotted smoke coming from the Tesla dealership parking lot just after 11 p.m. on March 17 and saw an unbroken Molotov cocktail on the ground nearby. ATF agents later recovered another suspected incendiary device and a light-colored hat left behind in a nearby yard, which helped investigators tie McIntire to the crime scene.

Surveillance footage, eyewitness accounts, and social media posts helped identify McIntire as the suspect, according to the affidavit. One witness described the individual at the scene as a tall, lanky young person dressed in black, with long dark hair, and carrying a white rectangular object. Another witness saw the suspect fleeing across the street moments after the fire began.

Investigators tracked McIntire’s flight records, showing he flew into Kansas City on March 16 and returned to Boston on March 23. They also matched the suspect’s description with photos from McIntire’s social media and confirmed his presence at the airport via surveillance images.

No attorney for McIntire, who is presumed innocent until proven guilty, was listed in the public docket as of the time of reporting.

FBI Director Kash Patel said this marks the second Tesla-related arrest in a week. “Our FBI teams continue our aggressive work to crack down on domestic terrorism cases like this one,” he wrote in a post on X. “Brilliant job by all.”

McIntire’s arrest follows a separate case in New Mexico, where authorities last weekend arrested 40-year-old Jamison Wagner in connection with two arson attacks earlier this year. Wagner is accused of firebombing a Tesla dealership in Albuquerque in February and setting fire to the New Mexico Republican Party headquarters in March.

In that case, Patel said investigators linked Wagner to both incidents using surveillance footage, forensic evidence, and materials recovered during a search of his home, including incendiary components and graffiti-matching spray paint.

In recent weeks, Tesla vehicles and dealerships in a number of states have been targeted by vandalism and arson. The FBI, in conjunction with the ATF, has launched a national task force to investigate these incidents.

It comes amid a wave of protests in opposition to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s high-profile role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative aimed at slashing federal waste amid a national debt in excess of $36 trillion.

Although many of the protests have been peaceful, there have been outbreaks of vandalism and violence. In cities including Las Vegas, Salem, Oregon, and Rome, Michigan, attackers vandalized Tesla vehicles, set fire to charging stations, and spray-painted anti-Musk slogans on buildings.

Musk has expressed bewilderment over the degree of violence associated with the anti-Tesla movement.

“I understand if you don’t want to buy our product, but you don’t have to burn it down,“ Musk said at a March 20 company meeting. ”That’s a bit unreasonable.”