Suspect dead, ongoing ‘counter terrorism’ investigation into power substation attack
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill speaks during a press conference, Feb. 20, 2026. ( Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
(NEVADA) — Authorities in Nevada are investigating a “counter terrorism incident” involving a man who allegedly tried to ram a vehicle into an L.A. power and water facility near Boulder City, Nevada, Thursday afternoon, according to officials.
The suspect was identified by authorities as Dawson Maloney, 23, of Albany, New York. He died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference Friday.
Authorities said they recovered firearms and explosive materials in Maloney’s hotel room.
The incident began unfolding at around 10 a.m. local time Friday, a 911 caller reported a vehicle crashing through a secured gate at the power substation. The caller reported that the suspect appeared deceased and shots were heard after the crash, according to McMahill.
At the press conference, investigators showed videos of a vehicle driving up to the facility before ramming through the gate. The vehicle was stopped when it ran into large industrial wire reels, McMahill said.
The suspect allegedly traveled from New York with the intent to cause chaos, according to a source. Maloney was reported missing from Albany and made contact with his family just before the attempted ramming, according to McMahill.
“The suspect had made multiple statements referencing self harm and alluding to committing an act that would place him ‘on the news.’ In a message to his mother, the suspect referred to himself as a ‘dead terrorist son’ and stated he felt he had an obligation to carry out his act,” McMahill said.
The suspect was also discovered to be wearing soft body armor at the time of the incident, McMahill said.
“These findings significantly elevate the seriousness of this incident,” McMahill said.
Through license plate reader data, investigators determined the suspect drove from New York to Nevada in a rental vehicle, according to McMahill.
Investigators believe he rented a vehicle on Feb. 12 then departed the area sometime around Feb. 14, crossing the country to Boulder City, according to FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Delzotto.
While executing a search at the suspect’s hotel, investigators found books with extremist ideologies “including right and left wing extremism, environmental extremism, white supremacy and anti-government ideology,” McMahill said.
“We also recovered explosive materials and components to include thermite, ammonium nitrate, magnesium ribbon, metal pipes and gasoline,” McMahill said.
Investigators found multiple firearms found in the vehicle that rammed into the gate including two shotguns, an AR-style pistol, numerous loaded AR magazines, a box of shotgun shells and two flame throwers, according to McMahill.
There was no indication of any damage to the facility and there is no threat to the community, according to officials.
Investigators have not yet determined the suspect’s motivation behind the attack.
The FBI updated their missing person poster for Nancy Guthrie, Feb. 10, 2026. (FBI)
(PHOENIX, Ariz.) — The man who was detained and released after being questioned in connection with the abduction of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, says it was “terrifying.”
The man, who said he works in Tucson and delivers packages for a living, said he was detained in a traffic stop in Rio Rico, according to ABC Phoenix affiliate station KNXV, which spoke to him after his encounter with law enforcement.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said on Tuesday they had detained a “subject” in connection with the investigation.
When asked about what happened, the man who spoke with KNXV said it was a “terrifying” experience and that authorities “didn’t tell me anything at the beginning.”
When asked if he delivered a package to Nancy Guthrie’s home, the man said, “I don’t know. Might have been a possibility. I don’t know.”
“I was detained the whole time,” he told KNXV. “I was being questioned, but they only asked me for my first name, my last name, my date of birth and my social.”
The man whom officials detained had been on the radar of the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department regarding Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance prior to the public release on Tuesday of the images of a masked subject at Nancy Guthrie’s front door, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The individual, who identified himself as Carlos, was detained for questioning in Rio Rico after the FBI identified him using a series of electronic investigative tools, including cellphone usage information and traffic data, the sources said, without specifying the exact techniques.
A local judge from Santa Cruz County, Arizona, signed the warrant for the search of the man’s house, which was carried out overnight. He was questioned for several hours before being released without charge and is under no law enforcement restrictions, according to the sources.
Separately, investigators are studying every pixel of the new video the FBI released publicly on Tuesday to try to find any identifying feature, including the apparent weapon and characteristics of what the subject was wearing, according to the sources.
“In high-profile cases, these type of leads are typical,” retired FBI agent Brad Garrett told Good Morning AmericaWednesday. “It may happen again because it’s the type of tips you get. But having said that, it’s the type of tips that will resolve this case.”
Investigators also descended upon a home where a court-authorized search was conducted and a woman claiming to be the homeowner says someone called in a tip reporting Nancy Guthrie was there.
“You can go in and search my house. There’s nobody there. I have nothing to hide,” the woman told KNXV. “There’s nobody in my house and I don’t know what’s going on.”
She told reporters her son-in-law was the person detained by police but insisted he had nothing to do with Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.
The developments followed the first images released of a masked man approaching Nancy Guthrie’s front door and as investigators continued to search in her neighborhood.
The images showed someone wearing a mask, gloves, a backpack and armed with a holstered handgun at the front door of Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson-area home around the time investigators suspect she was abducted on Feb. 1.
Savannah Guthrie later posted the images to her Instagram account, with the message, “We believe she is still alive. Bring her home.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that the FBI disrupted a “massive and horrific terror plot” by an anti-government extremist group allegedly planning a series of bombings against multiple targets in Orange County and Los Angeles, California, beginning on New Years Eve.
Bondi said the plot by the so-called “Turtle Island Liberation Front,” which she described in the announcement as a “far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government and anti-capitalist group,” also “planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.”
At a Los Angeles press conference Monday morning, Bill Essayli, assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, and Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said that four people — identified as Audrey Illeene Carroll, 30, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Dante Gaffield, 24, and Tina Lai, 41 — were arrested and each charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
The FBI on Friday “intercepted a scheme by members of a violent extremist group we believe determined to detonate explosives at multiple businesses on New Year’s Eve,” according to Davis.
The four people arrested, whom Davis said were “members of a radical faction of the Turtle Island Liberation Front, a violent homegrown anti-government group,” allegedly planned to plant backpacks containing improvised explosive devices “to be detonated at multiple locations in Southern California targeting U.S. companies.”
The IEDs were coordinated to detonate at midnight on New Year’s Eve, Davis said, adding that the suspects were arrested Friday by the FBI while they were allegedly assembling the devices in the desert.
All four will appear in federal court Monday afternoon, according to officials.
Though he declined to name the companies that were allegedly targeted, Essayli described them as “logistics centers.” He added that there were “at least five” locations that the suspects allegedly planned to target in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
FBI Director Kash Patel also posted Monday that a fifth person “believed to be linked” to the Turtle Island Liberation Front had been arrested by the FBI in New Orleans for “allegedly planning a separate violent attack.”
Boats descend lower into a desert canyon at Antelope Point Marina, requiring construction of alternative boat ramps, as Lake Powell continues to shrink on September 3, 2022, near Page, Arizona. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — It has been a tale of two winters on the opposing U.S. coasts this season.
While the East has been slammed with frigid temperatures and punishing winter storms, the West is experiencing a snow drought amid warmer-than-normal temperatures.
Prolonged drought across much of the West has been worsened this winter by below‑average snowfall and persistent warmth, fueling a widespread and intensifying snow drought. With sharply reduced mountain snowpack, the region’s water supplies and winter tourism are facing mounting challenges, experts told ABC News.
“This winter, we’ve just had an extreme lack of storm activity, and the storms that we have had have either brought very small amounts of snowfall or have brought rain,” Jon Meyer, assistant Utah state climatologist, told ABC News.
Warm temperatures have prevented snow from accumulating
Much of the western United States entered winter already grappling with a lack of rain. Widespread moderate to severe drought conditions stretched from New Mexico to Washington, including much of the Colorado River Basin, leaving soil moisture low and reservoir levels depleted heading into the season.
More than one-third of the West is currently facing some form of drought condition, with much of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico experiencing a moderate drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Mitigation Center’s U.S. Drought Monitor.
Utah is facing the worst drought conditions among western states, with more than 94% of the state experiencing what the USDM categorizes as a Moderate Drought and more than 40% of the state experiencing Severe Drought.
Salt Lake City has only received a tenth of an inch of snow so far this season – the lowest to date since records began in 1874, according to the National Weather Service. Their lowest seasonal snowfall was 14.3 inches during the winter of 1933-34. By comparison, parts of the Southeast, which typically don’t see much snowfall, have seen more snow than Salt Lake City this season.
“Just totally uncharted territory for the amount of low-elevation and mid-elevation snowfall Utah has seen, and that’s a pattern that’s played out across much of the Western U.S.,” Meyer said.
While many western states received average or above-average precipitation in the fall and early winter, warmer temperatures caused much of it to fall as rain rather than snow, leading to unusually low snowpack and a rapidly developing snow drought.
“If you look at most of the West, it’s at or above average, with regards to precipitation to date,” Eric Sproles, an associate professor of earth sciences at Montana State University, told ABC News. “But if you look at the the amount of water that’s stored in the snow pack is, it’s pretty bleak.”
Meteorological winter, which begins in the U.S. on December 1, kicked off with record warmth across much of the West. December 2025 was the warmest December on record for cities including Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Nine western states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming – recorded their warmest December on record. For the winter season to date, Colorado is currently experiencing its warmest winter since 1934, while Utah is experiencing its warmest winter on record, according to NOAA.
The snow drought is threatening water supplies
Drought on its own already stresses water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems. But when winter fails to deliver significant mountain snow, the resulting snow drought – a period of abnormally little snowpack for the time of year – can intensify those impacts, according to NOAA.
The snowpack typically acts as a natural water reservoir. However, without an adequate snowpack to slowly release water through the spring and summer snow melt, rivers run lower, soils dry out earlier, and drought conditions can deepen and linger.
Melting snow provides a slow release of the water into reservoirs and dams but also recharges ground water as well, Sproles said: “That slow, steady release is important. The snowpack is kind of like a savings account.”
In Utah, the snow water equivalent – meaning how much water is in the snowpack – is currently at only 55% of its median, which is the lowest snow water equivalent to date. Moreover, only a quarter of the state has seen a ground snow cover depth of at least 1 inch.
Colorado and Oregon are also reporting their lowest snow water equivalents to date, with Montana approaching its lowest snow water equivalent to date.
In much of the West, snowmelt provides a large percentage of the water used by communities, agriculture, and ecosystems; in some states, up to about 75 percent of the water supply can come from melting snow, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As such, the snow water equivalent is a vital measure of the region’s water resources.
According to NOAA, a persistent snow drought can trigger a cascade of hydrologic changes. Low snowpack and early snowmelt can affect vegetation, reduce surface and subsurface water storage and alter streamflow, all of which directly impact water management and planning across the West.
While soil moisture in not currently a concern, it could dry out over the next couple of months, according to Meyer.
“We’ve become critically reliant on soil moisture observations for drought monitoring and predictions,” Meyer said.
The reservoirs along the Colorado River are especially threatened, the experts said. Major reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin remain well below average, according to latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). As of early February, Lake Powell, in southern Utah and northern Arizona, was about 26 % full, while Lake Mead – the nation’s largest reservoir by volume, located in Arizona and Nevada – was about 34% full.
Total storage in the Colorado River system, which provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven western states, was roughly 37% of capacity, down from about 42% at the same time last year, according to the USBR, which has flagged 13 reservoirs, the majority located in the West, for having the lowest observed water storage levels for the current time period.
The Colorado River system also serves as a vital resource for 30 tribal nations, sustaining 5.5 million acres of farmland and agricultural communities throughout the West, while also supporting critical ecosystems and protecting endangered species, the USBR said.
Winter sports have been impacted by lack of snow
The snow drought is also impacting local economies that rely on winter sports, an industry that contributes $20 billion annually to the U.S. economy, according to The Climate Reality Project.
“The resort winter tourism is a huge economic backbone for many of these mountain resort communities,” Marcene Mitchell, senior vice president for climate change for the World Wildlife Fund, told ABC News. “And so as they lose their snowfall, they also lose these revenue.”
Vail Resorts, a Colorado-based company that owns and operates some of the largest ski resorts in North America, reported in January that skier visits to its North American resorts were down about 20% through Jan. 4, compared to the same period last year. The company issued the update as a mid-season report on skier visits and revenue, citing a lack of early-season snowfall as a major factor in the decline.
Season-to-date total lift revenue, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue, was down 1.8% from the same period last year, said the tourism company, which operates dozens of resorts across North America, including Vail Mountain and Breckenridge in Colorado and Park City Mountain in Utah.
“We experienced one of the worst early season snowfalls in the western U.S. in over 30 years, which limited our ability to open terrain and negatively impacted visitation and ancillary spending for both local and destination guests during the period,” Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz said in a statement.
Vail’s Tahoe-area resorts in California also had a slow start through mid-December, but holiday-period snowstorms allowed the company to open more terrain, Katz said.
February and March typically can bring significant amounts of snow to the region, and odds favor above-average precipitation for much of the region over the next few weeks, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, with persistent unusually warm conditions less likely. However, NOAA notes, snowfall in the coming months may not be able to make up for existing deficits.
Forecasters further caution that this pattern may not last for the rest of the month, with overall warmer and drier-than-average conditions still favored for the month as a whole.
