Just the day before Tesla held a Cybertruck delivery ceremony, a 28-year-old Florida man was arrested in Austin, Texas.The arrest warrant shows that the man allegedly planned a "mass casualty incident" and threatened to shoot Elon Musk.
The man's name is Paul Ryan Overeem. Police believe he traveled to Texas specifically to attend Tesla's Cybertruck delivery ceremony in Austin. Traffic cameras spotted his car on Nov. 28 on a highway in southwest Austin.
The arrest warrant states that Tesla's senior manager of security operations filed a suspicious activity report with police regarding the threatening message Overim posted on Instagram on November 9."I plan to kill someone on November 30th and I want you to do something so I don't have to. I'm planning an attack at the Tesla delivery ceremony so you're going to stop me."Overeem said on November 9.
After his arrest, Overeem told police he had weapons in his car and planned to kill himself."I'm going to shoot Musk and the Tesla factory," he said. After being detained, he admitted to repeatedly threatening to harm Musk and Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. He said he believed the two men were monitoring and following him through cameras.
Online records show Overim is being held in the Travis County Jail with bail set at $300,000.He was charged with terroristic threats, a third-degree felony. As of press time, Musk and Tesla have yet to comment.