Paul Ryan Overeem: Man arrested for plotting 'mass casualty' attack at Tesla's Cybertruck event in Texas

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Paul Ryan Overeem, a 28-year-old Florida man, was arrested on Wednesday, November 29, after allegedly driving over 1,000 miles from his home in Orlando to Austin, Texas, to carry out a potential mass shooting at a Tesla Cybertruck unveiling event, as reported by The Daily Beast.

He has been charged with making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony in Texas, carrying a potential 20-year prison sentence.

Tesla officials had been tipped off about Paul Ryan Overeem's apparent plan

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Austin American-Statesman, Tesla officials had been tipped off on November 10 about concerning Instagram messages from a user named "ufotnoitalumis," who was talking about committing a mass shooting at a company event on November 30.

Authorities subpoenaed Instagram and identified that the account belonged to Overeem.

Traffic cameras caught Overeem's vehicle with Florida license plates at stoplights in Austin on the day of his arrest. Police pulled him over after pinging his cell phone just miles away from Tesla's headquarters, where CEO Elon Musk was scheduled to host a Cybertruck test ride event.

Paul Ryan Overeem's Instagram messages threatened mass casualty at Tesla's event

In Overeem's Instagram messages described in the affidavit, he explicitly stated his desire to attack and kill people at the Tesla event.

His posts contained multiple spelling errors and read, "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 30 and I would like you do something about it so I don’t have to...I wanna die."

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not specifically named as a target, he was attending the Austin Cybertruck test ride event that Overeem's messages referred to. The messages indicated Overeem wanted to die while carrying out an attack.

Authorities have declined to specify whether Overeem was in possession of any weapons when he was apprehended. However, the threat was considered credible enough to lead to his arrest and transport to the Travis County Jail.

Paul Ryan Overeem is being held at Travis County Jail on $300,000 bail

Overeem is currently being held at the Travis County Jail on $300,000 bail. According to jail records, he has been appointed a public defender and has a court hearing scheduled for December 11.

Police have said Overeem has no known ties to Austin or the specific people he was chatting with over Instagram about his plans. The investigation into the plot and his motives is ongoing.

Making threats of a terroristic nature, especially mass shooting threats, are taken very seriously by law enforcement.