Officials have identified the driver of a Tesla Cybertruck that was packed with fireworks and fuel and exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, leaving the driver dead and seven others injured
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they believe 37-year-old Colorado Springs resident Matthew Livelsberger was in the drivers seat when the truck exploded, though the body was not immediately identifiable. Police say Livelsberger was dead before the explosion from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A handgun was found at his feet, police said.
LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a Thursday news conference that a charred body was found inside the vehicle but they were able to determine the identity from the military identification, credit cards and passport found at the scene.
Identification belonging to Matthew Livelsberger was found inside the Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
(Las Vegas Metro Police Department via Associated Press)
“His body is burnt beyond recognition and I do still not have confirmation 100% that that is the individual inside our vehicle,” McMahill said. “I will not come back until I have the confirmation through DNA or medical records that this is indeed in fact the subject inside of the vehicle.”
Officials believe Livelsberger acted alone and the motivation is still under investigation.
Las Vegas police said responded to a report of an explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday around 8:40 a.m. A rented 2024 Tesla Cybertruck exploded near the entrance doors of the hotel and went up in flames. Authorities found camp fuel and gasoline canisters and firework mortars in the truckbed.
Authorities tracked Livelesberger’s movements from Colorado to Las Vegas and determined that he alone rented and drove the Cybertruck, McMahill said.
Vehicular traffic near the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
(Ty O’Neil / Associated Press)
Both Livelsberger and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in the New Orleans attack, previously served at the Army’s Ft. Bragg, now known as Ft. Liberty, in North Carolina, but it is not clear whether they served at the same time or in the same unit. Both men also served in Afghanistan in 2009 though officials say they don’t have any evidence they were in the same location in the country or in the same unit, McMahill said. They both used rental company Turo to rent their vehicles.
Livelsberger was in the U.S. Army and served as a Green Beret operations sergeant, who spent the majority of his time at Fort Carson in Colorado and in Germany. He was on approved leave from Germany at the time of his death.
Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Saturday and charged the vehicle at Tesla charging stations throughout Colorado and New Mexico, McMahill said. The vehicle was last tracked around 5:33 a.m. on Wednesday in Kingman, Ariz., and was first spotted in Las Vegas around 7:29 a.m.
According to surveillance footage, Livelsberger pulled into the Trump hotel’s valet area and 17 seconds later, the explosion went off.
The explosion was caused by “very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck,” Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said in a statement on X.
The explosion didn’t significantly damage the Cybertruck and “vented out and up,” said Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It also didn’t shatter the glass doors of the Trump hotel lobby nearby; the cache of explosives inside the Cybertruck was meant to fuel a bigger blast.
“The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,” Cooper said.
Livelsberger worked as a special forces operation manager for the U.S. Army since 2006 before switching to a remote and autonomous systems manager two months ago, according to his LinkedIn profile.
On his Facebook profile, Livelsberger once criticized the withdrawal of the U.S. Armed Forced from Afghanistan in 2021. He called it the “biggest foreign-policy failure in the history of the United States.”
“Bet Bolton got a hefty chunk from the DNC and other slimy donors to put the book out,” he wrote in a comment, referring to former-U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and his memoir released in 2020.
When accused of being a conspiracy theorist, Livelsberger responded: “It’s not conspiracy when it’s pretty obvious guy made money from the dems.”
In another comment, Berg replied to a woman on Facebook who was complaining about the sounds of fireworks. “It was awesome to hear the sounds of battle,” he wrote.
A police vehicle near the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
(Ty O’Neil / Associated Press)
Elsewhere on Facebook, he posted in drone hobby groups showing off his projects. He asked fellow enthusiasts about which parts to use as he put together his own custom machines.
Livelsberger’s wife, Sara, had posted frequently on Facebook until 2016, sharing anti-Trump content and pictures of Livelsberger. A relative told CBS News that she had not heard from him in the days leading up to the attack.
An Army spokesperson confirmed that Livelsberger was on approved leave at the time of his death. He entered the active-duty Army in December 2012 and was a candidate to be a Green Beret after serving in the Army Reserve and the National Guard.
The agency said in a statement that it is in “full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations.”
FBI officials in Denver confirmed in a statement that they started searching a residence in Colorado Springs in connection with the case and would be there for several hours.
“This activity is related to the explosion in Las Vegas,” the FBI wrote on X.
Two semiautomatic firearms, purchased by Livelsberger on Monday, were found inside the vehicle, McMahill said. Investigators are looking into how the fireworks and gas and camping fuel canisters in the back of the vehicle were ignited.
Also under investigation is whether Livelsberger intentionally targeted one of Trump’s properties. Musk is a close advisor to the president-elect.
“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’s because of this particular ideology or any of the reasoning behind it,” said Las Vegas FBI Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans.
Staff writers Hannah Fry and Terry Castleman contributed to this report.
