According to Tesla Police, a Minnesota-based Tesla employee was detained after allegedly threatening to kill Elon Musk , the CEO of SpaceX, and US President Joe Biden.
The 31-year-old Justin McCauley was charged with felony terroristic threats on Tuesday after he tweeted that he was “planning to kill” Biden, Elon Musk, X, and Tesla.
He said on X (previously Twitter): “I will arrive in Texas, where the war has begun on many fronts @X, @Tesla and ‘@JoeBiden @X @Tesla @Elonmusk, I am planning to Kill all of you.”
Court records, which were obtained by Kxan, claim that when McCauley announced he was going to Texas and would never come back, his wife called Rogers Police. She told the police that he hadn’t been watching his phone, making it impossible to track.
The police interaction with McCauley
McCauley reportedly told Oklahoman police last Friday that he just wanted to talk to the president when they approached him. According to reports, he said, “Wouldn’t you want to talk to the president if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?” in response to a police inquiry.
According to the documents, McCauley did not fit the criteria for emergency detention at the time, so he was not taken into custody by the police. Subsequent to the inquiry, police enforcement began collaborating with a field agent of the Secret Service in Dallas to reach the Oklahoman hotel. But according to the search warrant, by the time the field agent arrived at the hotel, McCauley had already left.
Subsequently, the police discovered that McCauley was a Minnesota Tesla employee who was receiving workers’ compensation due to an injury.
According to reports, McCauley told police when he was stopped over on Sunday afternoon in Austin that he was heading to the Tesla Gigafactory in an attempt to contact CEO Musk and “give him a password only he would know about.” The story said, “He was then taken into custody.”
Deputies responded to a terrorism threat at the Austin Tesla Gigafactory the day before his arrest. Whether McCauley made the call remains a mystery.
McCauley was charged with a third-degree crime of terroristic threat after his arrest. Based on court records, he was sent to Travis County Jail on a $20,000 bail.
Elon Musk says there’s a risk to his life.
In an interview on Twitter Spaces in December 2022, Musk made hints about his fears for his life.
He stated during that two-hour Twitter Spaces Q&A session, “Frankly the risk of something bad happening to me, or even literally being shot, is quite significant.”
Hopefully, they don’t, because it’s not that hard to kill someone if you want to, and fate looks down on me and it doesn’t happen. There’s undoubtedly some danger involved,” he continued.
