US soldier ‘shot himself in the head before Tesla truck exploded’ outside Trump hotel
Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a 37-year-old serving soldier from Colorado, was found inside the cybertruck with ‘self inflicted gunshot wounds’ after the vehicle he had hired blew up outside a Las Vegas Trump hotel, wounding seven people, police say.
shot himself in the head seconds before the truck exploded, wounding another seven people.
Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, was found inside the vehicle with a “self-inflicted gunshot wound” to the head.
Sheriff McMahill said a handgun was found at the feet of Livelsberger, whose body was so badly burned, it was unrecognisable, the New York Post reports.
Livelsberger was a serving US Army service member from Colorado. He was based in Germany and was in the US for the holiday season, officials said.
CBS reports that relatives said his wife hadn’t heard from him for several days.
Two relatives of Livelsberger confirmed to CBS he had rented the Cybertruck but were unaware of him having any involvement in the incident.
One relative said Livelsberger’s wife had not heard from him in several days.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill showed reporters dramatic footage of the explosion and photos of the aftermath, including several fuel canisters along with large fireworks in the truck bed.
Footage showed the truck parked directly in front of the entrance of the hotel. The truck sits idle for several seconds before exploding, with fireworks shooting in several directions.
Another video showed investigators using a black fire-retardant tarp to put out the blaze and the charred remains of the truck bed. Gas and fuel canisters were left behind along with the remnants of more than a dozen firework mortars.
The FBI said it was searching a home in Colorado Springs amid an investigation into whether the blast, which came hours after the New Orleans attack in which 15 people died, was a terror attack.
The cybertruck was rented in Colorado, authorities said at a news conference. With fuel canisters and large firework mortars in the back, the truck arrived in Las Vegas about 7.30am local time Wednesday and drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard for an hour before pulling into the Trump hotel. It was parked for about 20 seconds before it exploded. Authorities said they were able to trace the truck through Tesla charging stations.
Mr Livelsberger was a member of 10th Special Forces Group, and had recently deployed in Europe, defence officials told the Wall St Journal. He also served in Afghanistan, Congo and Tajikistan.
The defence officials said he had earned a Bronze Star with valour.
He had served for 19 years in either the active duty or reserve, the officials said, and had no disciplinary problems.
Army officials told the WSJ they were perplexed by Mr Livelsberger’s involvement because his colleagues described him as a good soldier who raised no obvious concerns. The officials said there was no apparent link between the Las Vegas explosion and the New Orleans attack.
The cybertruck exploded outside a hotel belonging to US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas, police said on Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden said authorities were investigating any links between the Las Vegas explosion and an attack earlier Wednesday in New Orleans, where a truck ploughed into a crowd of New Year’s revellers, killing at least 15.
Mr Biden cautioned that no such links had yet been found, but it has emerged that Mr Livelsberger had served at the same military base as Jabbar, who spent almost eight years in the army and was deployed to Afghanistan.
The FBI and local law enforcement said they believed the Tesla blast was an isolated incident.
The electric vehicle pulled up to the Trump International Hotel’s glass entrance before a “large explosion,” Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters.
Appears likely to be an act of terrorism.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025
Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way. https://t.co/MM6ehJO3SG
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025
All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. https://t.co/HRjb87YbaJ
Video footage shows the stainless steel truck parked at the hotel entrance before bursting into flames, followed by smaller explosions that appeared similar to fireworks.
McMahill said there was “one deceased individual inside the Cybertruck,” while seven people received “minor” injuries. He said the hotel had been evacuated.
He told a later news conference that the back of the truck contained gasoline and camping fuel canisters, as well as “large firework mortars.”
McMahill also said the fact that it was a Cybertruck “really limited the damage … because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out,” noting that the glass doors of the hotel, just a few feet away, “were not even broken by that blast.”
Biden said authorities were probing “any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.” “Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” he said.
FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz described the Las Vegas blast as “an isolated incident.”
“We do not believe that there’s a bunch of folks out there supporting this or helping this,” Schwartz said.
The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 2, 2025
Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken. https://t.co/9vj1JdcRZV
Tesla chief Elon Musk said the explosion was “caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck,” adding in a post on his social media platform X that it was “unrelated to the vehicle itself.”
Musk said earlier the “whole Tesla senior team” was investigating the blast, adding: “We’ve never seen anything like this.”
Police said they were still working to establish the cause of the explosion. US media, including NBC and CBS, reported that authorities were investigating it as a potential terror attack, citing unidentified sources.
Musk-Trump ‘concerns’
The truck had been rented in Colorado through the carsharing company Turo, police said.
There had been indications that the suspect in the New Orleans attack had been inspired by the Islamic State group, Biden said.
McMahill said they had “no indication” so far that the blast in Las Vegas had any similar links to the jihadist group.
However, he added: “It’s a Tesla truck, and we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump tower.”
“So there’s obviously things to be concerned about there and that’s something we continue to look at,” McMahill said.
Musk, who backed Trump in the November election and was named by the Republican to head up a commission to trim government spending, said he would post more information “as soon as we learn anything.”
AFP
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