Florida man arrested in Texas after allegedly threatening 'mass casualty event' at Tesla event

AUSTIN, Texas (KEYE) — A 28-year-old Florida man was arrested in Texas the day before Tesla’s Cybertruck delivery event after allegedly planning to “shoot up Elon Musk and the plant,” according to an arrest affidavit.

The document states that the senior manager of security operations with Tesla filed a Suspicious Activity report regarding threatening messages that were sent on Instagram on Nov. 9.

Some of the messages read:

• “I sure am crazy though”
• “But yeah so at the Tesla event I’m planning an attach so up to you guys to stop me”
• “I plan on killing people at that even ok November 30th and I would like you to do something about it so I don’t have to”
• “I wanna die”
• “I need to be stopped”
• “If I’m saying I’m gonna kill people then you should take this seriously”

The senior manager followed up with the Travis County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, two days before the event. The sheriff’s office launched an investigation.

Investigators identified the Instagram user as Paul Ryan Overeem. Although he is from Florida, investigators pinged his cell phone on Wednesday and discovered that he was in Austin.

Believing he could potentially carry out his threats of a “mass casualty event,” SWAT officers found Overeem in a McDonald’s parking lot and arrested him. The affidavit says he told officers that he had weapons in his car and said he was planning on committing suicide before he could be arrested.

I was going to shoot up Elon Musk and the plant,” he said.

After he was taken into custody, he admitted that he made multiple threats to harm Musk and Shivon Zilis. He said he believed the two men were watching him through camera systems and tracking him.

According to online records, Overeem is in custody at the Travis County Jail on a $300,000 bond. He is charged with terroristic threat, a third-degree felony.