THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?
SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).
- Elon Musk says the gunman who killed three people in Austin previously worked at Tesla and was fired after violently assaulting a woman who accidentally stepped on his prayer rug.
- The March 1 shooter, Ndiaga Diagne, killed three people and wounded 15 before police fatally shot him. A former Tesla coworker had already filed a lawsuit over the alleged December assault.
- X erupted after interviewer Walter Isaacson followed Musk’s account by asking whether he got most of his information from social media.
LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).
Elon Musk just revealed a chilling chapter in the history of the man who murdered three people outside an Austin bar.
And somehow, the interview that followed managed to produce a moment almost as astonishing as the revelation itself.
During an October 20 conversation with author Walter Isaacson, Musk described how a former employee at Tesla’s Austin Gigafactory was fired after allegedly attacking a female coworker who accidentally stepped onto his Muslim prayer rug.
Months later, that same man carried out the deadly March 1 shooting outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden in downtown Austin. “We had someone who was working at the Tesla factory in Austin until December of last year,” Musk explained. “He was fired because he assaulted a woman who stepped on his prayer rug in the factory.”
According to Musk, the woman had no idea a prayer session was underway. “She accidentally stepped on his prayer rug, and he assaulted her. He violently assaulted her,” Musk said.
Then came the detail that made the story particularly disturbing. “A few months later, he went and killed three students in a bar in downtown Austin.”
The gunman was Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old Senegal-born naturalized American citizen who killed three people and wounded 15 others before Austin police shot him dead.
Two of the victims were college students. The third was a 30-year-old man.
The alleged workplace assault wasn’t merely a story Musk remembered. In March, 65-year-old Tesla employee Lillian Mendoza Brady filed a lawsuit accusing the company of negligence after Diagne allegedly assaulted her on December 4, 2025.
Her lawsuit seeks more than $1 million and alleges Tesla knew or should have known about the employee’s aggressive behavior.
Musk used the case to make a broader argument about immigration and public safety. “Now, I think we shouldn’t let people like that into the country. Do you?” he asked Isaacson.
Diagne had entered the United States legally in 2000 and became a naturalized citizen in 2013. The FBI later determined that he acted alone in the shooting.
But here’s where the interview took an unexpected turn.
After Musk described what allegedly happened inside his own factory, Isaacson asked him about his information sources. “Where do you get your information?” Isaacson asked, before wondering whether Musk relied primarily on social media.
Now, that is a perfectly reasonable question in many interviews.
But immediately after a man has described an incident involving an employee at a company he owns?
Well, X noticed.
The account Autism Capital summed up the awkward timing: “Elon talks about something that happens inside of his own factory then they hit him immediately with the ‘Where do you get your information? Is it mostly social media?’ Absolutely incorrigible.”
One imagines Tesla’s human-resources department might have been among Musk’s available sources.
Meanwhile, Libs of TikTok amplified the revelation, telling followers that the Austin gunman had previously been fired from Tesla after the alleged prayer-rug assault.
Another X user, Andy Witsparks, focused on what the workplace incident might have revealed about the gunman’s potential for violence. “A man who attacks a woman for stepping on his prayer rug has already told you who he is,” Witsparks wrote.
Others took the conversation directly into the immigration debate. One commenter questioned whether people who demonstrate violent intolerance should be admitted to the country. Another called for the removal of dangerous individuals already living in the United States. Journalist Jonathan Choe posted a pointed question about the familiar description of Islam as a religion of peace.
The responses were hardly unanimous assessments of immigration policy. But the common thread was concern about the alleged warning signs preceding a deadly attack.
And those warning signs now form part of an actual lawsuit against Tesla.
Brady’s attorneys allege the company failed to protect her from a dangerous coworker. The filing describes a violent, unprovoked assault during a company-sanctioned prayer break.
That legal dispute raises a separate issue from Musk’s immigration argument: What did Tesla management know about Diagne’s behavior, and what responsibility did the company have to protect its workers?
The underlying shooting remains horrifying regardless of the political debate surrounding it.
Three people were murdered, 15 others were wounded, and families were left to confront an unimaginable loss.
DBS WIRE SOURCES (I’ve got all day).
- Twitchy — Musk’s account of former Tesla employee triggers fierce X reactions
- The Builders with Walter Isaacson — Musk interview and transcript
- Courthouse News Service — Tesla employee’s lawsuit over alleged December assault
- FBI — Official investigation update on the Austin shooting
- Texas Tribune — Victims, gunman’s background and shooting timeline
