By Rich McKay and Hannah Lang
(Reuters) – Officials on Thursday positively identified the person found dead in a Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas as a U.S. Army soldier from Colorado, while the FBI said it was not yet clear whether the explosion was an act of terrorism.
The FBI said it has not yet found a definitive link between the New Year’s Eve truck attack in New Orleans that killed 15 people and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas later that day, which left seven people with minor injuries.
The driver of the Cybertruck has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, an active-duty soldier from Colorado Springs, and police said he was acting alone.
Livelsberger killed himself with a gunshot to the mouth, police said, citing the Clark County Coroner/Medical Examiner’s report, according to a post on X by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Livelsberger was in the vehicle when gasoline tanks and large fireworks mortars exploded in the bed of the truck, police said.
Police previously said at a news conference that they believe the person was found in the Livelsberger truck, but because the body was burned beyond recognition, investigators are awaiting confirmation from DNA evidence and medical records.
Livelsberger shot himself just before the explosives in the vehicle detonated, Las Vegas Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters. A gun was found at his feet.
It was one of two semi-automatic handguns found in the Cybertruck, both legally purchased by Livelsberger on December 30th. Police also found military IDs, a passport, an iPhone and credit cards in the truck.
Livelsberger was assigned to the Army’s Special Operations Command and was on authorized leave at the time of his death, an Army official said. The Army’s Special Operations Command would not comment on the ongoing investigation, a spokesman said.
A US official told Reuters that Livelsberger was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor and the Army Commendation for Valor, along with the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. He completed five combat deployments in Afghanistan, the official said.
A close relative of Livelsberger, who asked that his name not be used because he does not want to be publicly associated with the suspect, told Reuters that Livelsberger had always wanted to be “a soldier, in special forces, even as a child. And when he achieved that , he was a soldier.”
Livelsberger supported President-elect Donald Trump throughout his Republican political career, seeing him as someone who loved the military, a relative told Reuters. “He thought Trump was the greatest thing in the world.”
Livelsberger went to high school in Bucyrus in northern Ohio, the man said, where he played football and baseball and seemed happy and popular.
The man said the family had no idea that Livelsberger was planning something like the Las Vegas bombing. He said he cannot come to terms with what Livelsberger is believed to have done to the person he knew both as a child and as a man.
Livelsberger graduated from Bucyrus High School in 2005, Ohio media reports. After graduation, he immediately joined the army, his cousin said.
Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the Las Vegas hotel show the Cybertruck, an electric vehicle with a distinctive angular design, exploding and bursting into flames while parked outside the hotel around 8:40 a.m. local time (16:40 GMT) in Wednesday.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
TRUMP BUILDING, TESLA VEHICLE
The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the Trump Organization, the company of Donald Trump, who is returning to the White House on January 20. The president-elect’s son Eric Trump, the executive director of the Trump Organization, praised Las Vegas firefighters and law enforcement officials Wednesday for their swift action after the explosion.
Tesla (O:) CEO Elon Musk has been a key supporter of Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign and is also an adviser to the incoming president.
“We haven’t forgotten that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle, but at this point we don’t have any information that definitively tells us or suggests that it was because of this particular ideology, or … whatever the reasons behind it,” he said. is McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.
Police said Livelsberger rented a Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 and stopped in several cities, including Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Flagstaff, Arizona, before arriving in Las Vegas early Wednesday.
The truck drove down the city’s strip of hotels and casinos, passed through the driveway of the Trump Hotel and later returned to the service area. After the explosion, the Trump Hotel was evacuated, and most of the guests were moved to another hotel.
Both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack were rented through the car-sharing service Turo, McMahill said.
A Tur spokesman said the company does not believe any of the renters of the vehicles involved have a criminal background that would identify them as a security threat.
