By Summary
- Person in Cybertruck killed himself; seven others injured in the blast.
- FBI says search of Colorado Springs home related to explosion.
- Incident occurred hours after man drove truck into crowd in New Orleans.
Law enforcement officials on Thursday said a U.S. Army soldier from Colorado was likely the person inside the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, leaving the driver dead and seven people with minor injuries.
The FBI said it had so far found no definitive link between the New Year’s Day New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people and the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion on the same day. The FBI said it was not yet clear whether the Las Vegas explosion was an act of terrorism. Authorities believe Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs, was inside the vehicle when gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the truck bed exploded and that he acted alone. The body was burned beyond recognition and investigators were awaiting confirmation from DNA evidence and medical records.
This image, provided by Alcides Antunes, shows a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel.
The person in the Cybertruck shot himself in the head immediately before explosives in the vehicle were detonated, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference. A handgun was found at his feet. It was one of two semi-automatic handguns found in the Cybertruck, both of which were lawfully purchased by Livelsberger on December 30. Law enforcement also found military identification, a passport, an iPhone and credit cards in the truck.
Livelsberger was assigned to the Army Special Operations Command and was on approved leave at the time of his death, an Army official said. The Army Special Operations Command would not comment on an ongoing investigation, a spokesperson said. A U.S. official told reporters that Livelsberger had been awarded a Bronze Star for valor and an Army commendation for valor, along with a Combat Infantryman Badge. He had completed five combat deployments to Afghanistan, the official said.
A close relative of Livelsberger, who asked that his name not be used because he did not want to be publicly linked to the suspect, told reporters that Livelsberger always wanted to be an “Army soldier, in Special Forces, even as a little kid. And when he achieved that, he was a soldier’s soldier.” Livelsberger was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump throughout the Republican’s political career, seeing him as someone who loves the military, the man added. “He thought Trump was the greatest thing in the world.”
Las Vegas police released a photo of the remains of fuel canisters in the Cybertruck (Image: Las Vegas police)
Livelsberger went to high school in Bucyrus in northern Ohio, the man said, where he played football and baseball and appeared happy and popular.
The man said that there was no inkling in the family that Livelsberger was planning something like the Las Vegas bombing. He said he could not reconcile what Livelsberger is believed to have done with the person he knew both as a child and man. Livelsberger graduated from Bucyrus High School in 2005, according to Ohio media. He immediately left to join the military after graduation, his relative said. Livelsberger did not appear to have had a criminal record, Las Vegas Sheriff McMahill said.
He has been linked to addresses in Colorado Springs since 2013, and local news channel FOX21 reported law enforcement officials were at a townhome complex there on Wednesday night. The FBI’s Denver office on Thursday said a search of a residential address in Colorado Springs by federal and local authorities was related to the Las Vegas explosion.
Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the Las Vegas hotel showed the Cybertruck, an electric vehicle with a distinctive angular design, exploding and flames pouring out of it, as it sat in front of the hotel around 8:40 a.m. local time (1640 GMT) on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday. However, the president-elect’s son, Eric Trump, commended the Las Vegas fire and law enforcement officials for their swift response to the explosion on Wednesday.
Federal and local authorities’ investigators search a townhouse, in relation to the explosion in Las Vegas of a Tesla Cybertruck, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. January 2, 2025.
“LOTS OF QUESTIONS”
The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the Trump Organization, the company of Donald Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was a key backer of Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign and is also an adviser to the incoming president.
“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle, but we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology, or… any of the reasoning behind it,” McMahill said.
Police said Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on December 28 and made stops in several cities including Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Flagstaff, Arizona, before arriving in Las Vegas early on Wednesday.
Police cars and officers stand in the car park of the Trump Tower, after a Tesla Cybertruck burned at the entrance of Trump Tower, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 1, 2025.
The truck drove along the city’s famous hotel- and casino-lined Strip, drove through the Trump hotel’s driveway and later returned to the valet area. Following the explosion, Trump hotel was evacuated, and most guests were moved to another hotel.
Both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack were rented through car-sharing service Turo, McMahill said.
A Turo spokesperson said the company did not believe either of the renters of the vehicles involved had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.
A general view of the neighborhood where federal and local authorities’ investigators search a townhouse, in relation to the explosion in Las Vegas of a Tesla Cybertruck, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. January 2, 2025.
