By Rich McKay and Hannah Lang
(Reuters) -Law enforcement officials on Thursday said a U.S. Army soldier from Colorado was likely the person inside a Tesla (NASDAQ:) Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, leaving the driver dead and seven people with minor injuries.
The FBI said it had so far found no definitive link between the New Year’s Day New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people and the Cybertruck explosion on the same day. The FBI said it was not yet clear whether the Las Vegas blast was an act of terrorism.
Authorities believe Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs, was inside the vehicle when gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the truck bed exploded and that he acted alone. The body was burned beyond recognition and investigators were awaiting confirmation from DNA evidence and medical records.
The person in the Cybertruck shot himself in the head immediately before explosives in the vehicle were detonated, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference. A handgun was found at his feet.
It was one of two semi-automatic handguns found in the Cybertruck, both of which were lawfully purchased by Livelsberger on Dec. 30. Law enforcement also found military identification, a passport, an iPhone and credit cards in the truck.
Livelsberger was assigned to the Army Special Operations Command and was on approved leave at the time of his death, an Army official said. The Army Special Operations Command would not comment on an ongoing investigation, a spokesperson said.
A U.S. official told Reuters that Livelsberger had been awarded a Bronze Star for valor and an Army commendation for valor, along with a Combat Infantryman Badge. He completed five combat deployments to Afghanistan, the official said.
A close relative of Livelsberger, who asked that his name not be used because he did not want to be publicly linked to the suspect, told Reuters that Livelsberger always wanted to be an “Army soldier, in Special Forces, even as a little kid. And when he achieved that, he was a soldier’s soldier.”
Livelsberger was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump throughout the Republican’s political career, seeing him as someone who loves the military, the man 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 appeared happy and popular.
The man said that there was no inkling in the family that Livelsberger was planning something like the Las Vegas bombing. He said he could not reconcile what Livelsberger is believed to have done with the person he knew both as a child and man.
Livelsberger graduated from Bucyrus High School in 2005, according to Ohio media. He immediately left to join the military after graduation, his relative said.
Livelsberger did not appear to have had a criminal record, Las Vegas Sheriff McMahill said.
He has been linked to addresses in Colorado Springs since 2013, and local news channel FOX21 reported law enforcement officials were at a townhome complex there on Wednesday night.
The FBI’s Denver office on Thursday said a search of a residential address in Colorado Springs by federal and local authorities was related to the Las Vegas explosion.
Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the Las Vegas hotel showed the Cybertruck, an electric vehicle with a distinctive angular design, exploding and flames pouring out of it, as it sat in front of the hotel around 8:40 a.m. local time (1640 GMT) on Wednesday.
A Trump spokesperson did not return a request for comment on Thursday. The president-elect’s son, Eric Trump, praised Las Vegas fire and law enforcement officials on Wednesday for their quick action following the explosion.
‘LOTS OF QUESTIONS’
The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the Trump Organization, the company of Donald Trump, who will return to the White House on Jan. 20. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was a key backer of Trump in his 2024 presidential campaign and is also an adviser to the incoming president.
“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,” McMahill said.
Police said Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 and made stops in several cities including Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Flagstaff, Arizona, before arriving in Las Vegas early on Wednesday.
The truck drove along the city’s hotel- and casino-lined Strip, drove through the Trump hotel’s driveway and later returned to the valet area. The Trump hotel was evacuated and most guests were moved to another hotel.
Both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans attack were rented through car-sharing service Turo, McMahill said.
A Turo spokesperson said the company did not believe either of the renters of the vehicles involved had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.
