Suspect in Cybertruck explosion outside Trump Las Vegas hotel ID’d

Authorities are still searching for a motive, but disclosed on Thursday that a Green Beret soldier was behind a New Year’s Day explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas that killed the suspect and injured seven others. 

An active duty Green Beret soldier is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound just moments before the Tesla Cybertruck equipped with explosive material he was occupying detonated outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day, police said. 

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Thursday that authorities believe 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado was behind the explosion, and that he was the only fatality associated with the blast. Officials are awaiting forensic test results to positively identify the body they believe was Livelsburger’s, noting the body pulled from the vehicle was  “burned beyond recognition” from the wreck, but noted a military identification card, passport and credit cards found inside the vehicle all belonged to Livelsberger. 

Ultimately, seven people suffered minor injuries, but virtually no damage was done to the hotel, McMahill said. Inside the vehicle, in addition to several documents belonging to Livelsberger, investigators found fireworks and canisters of flammable fuel police said they believe could have been placed there to make the explosion more severe.

Officials added that much of the explosion seems to have been absorbed by the steel body design of the Cybertruck. Rather than exploding outward, sending shrapnel all over, the explosives placed in the bed of the truck “vented out and up,” McMahill said, adding that footage shows the Livelsberger pulling up to the valet entrance to the hotel just moments before the blast. 

“The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,” said Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Authorities are still working to determine a motive. 

“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,” said Spencer Evans, the Las Vegas FBI’s special agent in charge.

McMahill said a handgun was found at the feet of the body in the driver’s seat believed to be Livelsberger, and that a second semi-automatic firearm was also located in the vehicle. Both had been legally purchased by Livelsberger, Cooper said. 

Livelsberger had recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Livelsberger also reportedly had gotten into a fight with his wife about their relationship shortly before he rented the Tesla in Colorado on Dec. 28 and drove to Las Vegas.

Livelsberger had been in the Army since 2006, and had been deployed twice to Afghanistan, as well as stints in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia, and Congo, the military told the AP. He was awarded five Bronze Stars, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. 

McMahill said investigators believe Livelsberger had rented the vehicle using a mobile app, and had been able to cross-reference logs kept by Tesla’s network of electric vehicle chargers to track the route taken by Livelsberger to Las Vegas. Those logs show the vehicle making stops in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all before arriving at Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

McMahill said investigators obtained charging station photos showing Livelsberger “was the individual that was driving this vehicle” and was alone.

The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others. 

Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.

Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found “no definitive link” between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas.

Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.”

Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.

Musk spent an estimated $250 million during the presidential campaign to support the former president. He was at Trump’s resort on election night and has been a frequent guest there. Trump has named Musk, the world’s richest man, to co-lead a new effort to find ways to cut the government’s size and spending.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.