Cybertruck bomber claims explosion was a ‘wake up call’, according to note recovered by police
Note recovered from Matthew Livelsberger’s phone claims he planned suicide and Cybertruck explosion as a “wake up call” to the American people.
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The man who shot himself and then blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas claimed his actions were intended as a “wake up call”.
Investigators have now revealed that Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a 37-year-old member of the US Army, left behind two notes, which have since been recovered from his phone that was found inside the destroyed vehicle.
In the notes, Livelsberger insisted his motive behind his suicide and the subsequent explosion, which left seven people injured, was not terror-related, according to Las Vegas Police.
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives,” the note in the 37-year-old’s notes app read.
“Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”
In another letter, recovered police, Livelsberger warned fellow military personnel, along with all Americans, to “wake up”.
“We are being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves,” he wrote, according to the police.
“We are the United States of America, the best country people to ever exist! But right now we are terminally ill and headed toward collapse.”
Livelsberger hired a Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado and then drove to the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.
Just before 9am local time, he parked the truck by the front entrance of the hotel.
Police said there was a gunshot wound to the head of the driver of the vehicle which then exploded.
Livelsberger, a Green Beret who was on planned leave from his US Army posting in Germany, is the only suspect.
The explosion took place just hours after the New Orleans truck ramming that led to 15 deaths including the driver.
While a connection between the two incidents was initially feared, the FBI said there is “no definitive link” between the Las Vegas and New Orleans events.
Bizarre email sent to retired intelligence officer
There are claims Livelsberger may have also crafted a manifesto-type letter, which was sent prior to his death and the explosion.
Retired US Army intelligence officer, Sam Shoemate, says he was sent an email from a person claiming to be Livelsberger, in which they claim the drones being seen flying over parts of the US are actually Chinese weapons.
Mr Shoemate revealed the email during an interview on former US Navy Seal Shawn Ryan’s podcast, Shawn Ryan Show.
“China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up,” the email reportedly read.
“As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the balloon for sigint (signals intelligence) and isr, which are also part of the integrated comms system. There are dozens of those balloons in the air at any given time.”
In the email, the writer reportedly claimed the aircraft were the “most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed”.
The person claiming to be Livelsberger also said he believed he was going followed by authorities for over a week because he helped cover up “war crimes” in Afghanistan.
“I’ve been trying to maintain a very visible profile and have kept my phone and they are definitely digitally tracking me,” the email stated.
Mr Shoemate said he turned the email over to the FBI after receiving it on December 31, but then decided to also release it on the podcast.
In a recent press conference, authorities said they were “very well aware” of the claims being made in the podcast regarding the letter, noting they have “been aware of that document for a while now”.
The police said they have not yet been able to verify the source of the letter, revealing there was still one phone and one laptop that investigators are yet to access.
Break up, bizarre texts
Why Livelsberger decided to drive 1600km in a car rigged with explosives remains a mystery.
The FBI has stated it is looking into the possibility that the attack was politically motivated given that it occurred at a hotel owned bearing the Trump family name and with a vehicle from Trump-ally Elon Musk.
However, it’s been reported that Livelsberger supported Donald Trump.
In addition, the New York Post has quoted police sources that reported Livelsberger’s wife – with whom he had an eight month old baby daughter – had recently told him she knew he had been cheating.
The newspaper said that the couple broke up six days before Livelsberger’s death. He left their home on December 26 and never returned.
He rented the Tesla Cybertruck on December 28 in Denver.
Livelsberger then reportedly sent a series of text messages to an ex-girlfriend who he had broken up with in 2021, reportedThe Sun.
Livelsberger is said to have confirmed he had rented the car that made him “felt like Batman”.
“It’s the s****,” he said of the car.
Livelsberger was also married previously to a woman named Sara Livelsberger, with the pair divorcing in 2018.
A friend of Sara’s, Stacie Wilssens, told the Colorado Springs Gazette that she knew the Army member as a “bizarre and unhealthy” man.
Ms Wilssens first met the former couple in 2012 after they moved to Colorado Springs. She immediately hit it off with Sara but preferred to spend time with her when her husband was away because she didn’t like being around him.
The friend claimed Sara struggled and suffered depression as she was often left alone due to Livelsberger being deployed overseas.
“She was trying to get healthy and he would mock her,” she said.
“He preyed on her.”
Ms Wilssens described the pair as “polar opposites”, noting that Sara was a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter during the 2016 election, while Livelsberger was a conservative thinker and supported Donald Trump.
“Nothing ever felt stable or steady between the two of them,” she said.
Trump supporter
Family members who spoke to US network CBS News said he seemed normal before his destructive act.
He “loved the Army and loved America,” his father Roger Livelsberger said.
The Special Forces soldier served in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. He started a charity to bring toys to children in Afghanistan and helped resettle an interpreter from the country.
The Sun has reported that Livelsberger’s uncle Dean viewed his nephew as a “supersoldier”. He described Livelsberger as a “Rambo”-type patriot who loved president-elect Donald Trump.
“We have to focus on what we know and what we don’t know,” special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division Spencer Evans said on Thursday, US time.
“We know we have a bombing and it’s a bombing that certainly has factors that raise concerns.
“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.”
So far, law enforcement does not believe Livelsberger had any help carrying out the explosion, with surveillance cameras tracking him all alone on his trip from Colorado Springs to Las Vegas.
Tesla charging stations pinged Livelsberger travelling south and then west through at least eight other recharging hubs as he headed to Vegas.
He was seen alone at the stations, with no one else ever coming in or out the Cybertruck, which Mr Livelsberger rented on the Turo app by himself, police said.
Investigators believe Livelsberger was the only person inside the vehicle, though they’re awaiting confirmation from DNA testing, given the condition of the body.
“His body is burnt beyond recognition. I still do not have confirmation, 100 per cent, that he is the individual that was inside our vehicle,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill, head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said at a press conference on Thursday.
New Orleans attack similarities
The mystery surrounding what drove Livelsberger is in contrast to the motive for the January 1 New Orleans terror attack where Shamsud-Din Jabbar mowed down and murdered 14 people before he was killed in a fire fight with police.
“He was 100 per cent inspired by ISIS,” said FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia.
Jabbar posted a video prior to the attack about a ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers’.
“He stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. He also provided a will and testament,” said Mr Raia.
It is thought that Jabbar acted alone.
While the FBI has yet to determine any link between the incidents, nonetheless there are similarities between the two.
The first is the timing, just one hour apart.
Both men were members of the US Army, although Jabbar was honourably discharged in 2020.
The two men served at the same military base, Fort Bragg, though it appears their time there did not overlap.
And both served on tours to Afghanistan. Jabbar and Livelsberger were both there in 2009, though the authorities say there’s no evidence to suggest they were ever in the same location or unit.
In addition, both rented the vehicles used in the attacks through the same car-sharing app, Turo.
Originally published as Cybertruck bomber claims explosion was a ‘wake up call’, according to note recovered by police
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