Elon Musk’s security team asked to be questioned about an incident it cited as the reason for banning reporters | CNN Business

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Police in Southern California are seeking to speak with Elon Musk and his security team over an alleged assault last week that Musk claimed involved a “crazy stalker” and led to the suspension of a jet-setting account private on Twitter, as well as several prominent journalists. .

Musk has pointed to the incident as the reason for Twitter’s abrupt change in policy on publishing information about users’ locations, claiming that the @ElonJet account and journalists had shared their “accurate real-time” location . While the @ElonJet account showed Musk’s private jet landing Dec. 12 in Los Angeles, the incident happened roughly 24 hours later and 25 miles away from the airport, according to police.

In a statement Tuesday, police in South Pasadena, Calif., offered a different version of the incident than Musk first claimed, saying police responded to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon shortly before from 22:00 on December 13. When officers arrived, they found a 29-year-old Connecticut man, who police described as the victim.

The man, who was not identified, said he had just exited the 110 Freeway in his vehicle when he stopped to use his phone in a parking lot. While he was parked, he told police, another car pulled in front of him and blocked his path. The driver of the second vehicle approached the man and accused him of following him on the highway. When the suspect later pulled out of the parking lot, he hit the man with his car, police said.

“At no time during the incident did the victim identify the suspect or indicate that the altercation was more than a coincidence,” police said.

Two days after the incident, on Dec. 15, police said they “learned that the suspect involved in this case is believed to be a member of Elon Musk’s security team. Detectives do not believe that Mr. Musk was present during the confrontation.” Police said detectives are reviewing evidence and video footage of the incident and “efforts are being made to contact Mr. Musk and his security team for statements.”

The statement comes after Musk suspended CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan and several other reporters, falsely accusing them of sharing the billionaire’s live location. O’Sullivan and other reporters had recently written about the Twitter account tracking Musk’s private jet.

“They posted my exact real-time location, basically the coordinates of the murder, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter’s terms of service,” Musk said in a tweet Thursday night.

Musk said he took the action after a “crazy stalker” followed a car carrying his son in Los Angeles on Dec. 13. “Last night the car taking lil X to LA was followed by a crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who then blocked the car’s movement and climbed on the hood,” tweeted the December 14 Musk later posted a video of a man in a car along with the car’s license plate and asked “Does anyone recognize this person or this car?”

Earlier this week, The Washington Post spoke with a man who claimed to be the person seen in the video posted by Musk. The man told the paper he was in the area at the time working for Uber Eats and made outlandish claims about Musk and the mother of two of Musk’s children.

CNN has reached out to the man for comment.

When O’Sullivan reached out for comment on the incident on Tuesday, Musk told CNN in an email: “Giving O’Sullivan [sic] he’s a liar.”

— CNN’s Stella Chan contributed to this report.