Man, an elite soldier, was found in an exploded Cybertruck. Reports indicate he shot himself moments before the blast."
The driver of a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day was an active-duty U.S. special forces soldier who died by suicide before the blast, officials confirmed.
Las Vegas police identified the man as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He rented the vehicle over 800 miles away and drove it to the Nevada hotel on the morning of the explosion.
According to the Clark County Coroner's office, Livelsberger’s cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The explosion, caused by a vehicle filled with fuel canisters and firework mortars, injured seven people, though all injuries were reported to be minor.
Mr Livelsberger drove the Cybertruck to the city on Wednesday morning, less than two hours before the detonation, police have said. Parked in front of the hotel near a glass entrance, the vehicle started to smoke, then exploded.
Las Vegas authorities said the Cybertruck helped contain the explosion, sending it vertical rather than outward. The nearby glass doors and windows of the hotel did not shatter in the blast.
Authorities said they have yet to determine any motive behind the incident.
"I'm comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately after," Sheriff McMahill said during Thursday's press conference.
The sheriff said investigators recovered a military ID, a passport, two semi-automatic pistols, fireworks, an iPhone, a smart watch and several credit cards in Mr Livelsberger's name from the charred vehicle.
The body in the vehicle was burnt beyond recognition and was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on Thursday.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill stated that two tattoos on the driver’s remains matched those known to belong to Matthew Alan Livelsberger.
Livelsberger, originally from Colorado Springs, rented the Tesla Cybertruck in Denver on December 28.
Authorities tracked his movements from Denver to Las Vegas using photographs taken during his journey and data from Tesla’s charging system, which detailed his stops along the route. Livelsberger was the only person observed driving the vehicle.
Sheriff McMahill highlighted similarities between the Las Vegas incident and a New Orleans truck attack that killed 14 people, both of which occurred on New Year’s Day. However, no definitive connection between the two cases has been established.
Both suspects had served at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, though records show they were not stationed there at the same time nor in the same unit. They were also both deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, but there is no evidence they were in the same region or unit during their service.
Additionally, both suspects used the Turo car rental platform to acquire the vehicles involved in their respective incidents.
“We do not believe there is any ongoing threat from this individual or anyone connected to him here in Las Vegas,” McMahill assured.
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