Officials: Man Planned ‘Mass Casualty’ Incident At Tesla Event
A Florida man is in custody on charges of planning an attack on Tesla’s Cybertruck unveiling last Thursday. Travis County officials report Paul Ryan Overeem, 28, was arrested on charges of making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony.
He is believed to have driven from Florida to Texas for the prominent event at the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin. Overeem’s Chevy Tahoe was spotted by traffic cameras on a highway in the southwest part of the city on Nov. 28.
Investigators believe that the suspect made threats on Instagram on Nov. 9 during an online exchange. Overeem went by the handle “ufotnoitalumis” and apparently suffered paranoia over the prevalence of modern technology.
In one rambling message, he allegedly posted, “But yeah so at teh (sic) Tesla event I’m planning to attach (sic) so up to you guys to stop me…I plan on killing people at that even (sic) ok (sic) November 30th and I would like you to do something about it so I don’t have to.”
The arrest warrant noted that Overeem appeared depressed in a subsequent posting. “I wanna die. My thoughts haven’t been free for over a year. All the electronics around me.”
Another message declared, “If I’m saying I’m gonna kill people then you should take this seriously.”
Investigators obtained his phone number from Instagram and apparently set up surveillance. After his arrest in Austin, jail records showed he was being held on a $300,000 bond.
CBS Austin reported that Overeem told arresting officers that he had weapons in his vehicle and planned to commit suicide. He also allegedly stated, “I was going to shoot up Elon Musk and the plant.”
The outlet added that Overeem accused Tesla owner Musk and Shivon Zilis of watching him. Zilis is a Neuralink director and the mother of twin children with Musk.
It was not clear if there were weapons present when the suspect was arrested.
What is clear is that there is a serious mental health crisis currently in the U.S., and it is strongly in the public interest to address this.
It is a credit to law enforcement that Overeem’s threats were taken seriously and he was placed under surveillance. Too many times very obvious signs of mental distress are overlooked by authorities until a violent act is carried out, and by then it is too late.
