A Tesla employee from Minnesota, United States was arrested in Texas after he allegedly threatened to kill US President Joe Biden and billionaire Elon Musk, as per a report in Fox News.
On Tuesday, Justin McCauley, aged 31, had posted on X that he was "planning to kill" Mr Biden, Mr Musk, his companies X and Tesla. He was charged with felony terroristic threats. "I will arrive in Texas where the war has begun on many fronts @X @Tesla," he wrote in a post. In another post, he said, "@JoeBiden @X @Telsa @Elonmusk, I am planning to kill all of you."
According to court filings, Mr McCauley's wife called Rogers Police when he declared that he was leaving for Texas and would never return. As per his wife, he had left his mobile phone at home so that it could not be monitored.
The indictments allege that Mr McCauley was stopped by Oklahoman law authorities on January 26 while passing through the state. During the encounter, he informed police officers he wanted to speak with the president. On being questioned, he said, "Wouldn't you want to talk to the president if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?"
Further, the next morning, the authorities were informed about a threat call at the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin. However, it remains unclear if the 31-year-old employee made the call.
Court records also stated that Mr McCauley was stopped by police on Sunday afternoon in Austin. He reportedly informed officials that he intended to visit the Tesla Gigafactory in an attempt to speak with Mr Musk. He was then arrested by the police, as per CBS News.
In December 2022, Tesla and SpaceX Chief claimed that the risk of something bad happening to him or even literally being shot at is "quite significant". In a two-hour-long audio chat on Twitter Spaces, Mr Musk stated that he "definitely" wouldn't be doing any open-air car parades.
"Frankly the risk of something bad happening to me, or even literally being shot, is quite significant," Elon Musk said, adding, "It's not that hard to kill somebody if you wanted to, so hopefully they don't, and fate smiles upon the situation with me and it does not happen ... There's definitely some risk there."
