Cybertruck explosion suspect born in Arizona; drove through state from Denver
- by AZFamily
- Jan 02, 2025
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Published: Jan. 2, 2025 at 12:32 PM MST
|Updated: Jan. 2, 2025 at 10:21 PM MST
PHOENIX (AZFamily/AP) — The person who authorities believe died in the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel was an active-duty U.S. Army soldier from Colorado Springs was born in Arizona, according to law enforcement officials.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man who’s been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted.
LVMPD share photos of Matthew Livelsberger's passport, which shows he was born in Arizona.
(Arizona's Family)
Las Vegas police said the passport of Livelsberger appears to show he was born in Arizona. The government identification was found in the blast that sparked terrorism fears in the entertainment capital of the world in wake of the deadly Bourbon Street terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day.
Matthew Livelsberger stopped in Arizona to charge the Tesla Cybertruck used in the explosion, police said.
(Arizona's Family)
In a morning news conference, authorities confirmed that he drove through three northern Arizona cities, Holbrook, Flagstaff, and Kingman, to charge the Tesla vehicle before arriving in Las Vegas.
Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said.
He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement.
The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs related to Wednesday’s explosion but provided no other details.
The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack. The FBI said Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.
Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found ‘no definitive link’ between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas.
Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “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.”
“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote.
Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
Authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, Kevin McMahill, the elected sheriff of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, said Wednesday. He did not release the person’s ID, however.
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