The man who died when a Tesla Cybertruck packed with explosives burst into flames outside a hotel in Las Vegas. Donald Trump He was a highly decorated Army Green Beret who had deployed twice to Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.
The driver and lone occupant of the electric Tesla Cybertruck that caught fire and exploded He was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Livelsberger, 37, died, while seven bystanders were wounded. Livelsberger was first identified in media reports and on Thursday afternoon the FBI said it was suspected to be Livelsberger and was waiting for DNA tests to confirm this.
The explosion happened early on Wednesday morning, just hours later a mass killing in New Orleans in which a military veteran drove a wagon into the crowd. Shortly after the explosion in Las Vegas, investigators discovered that the vehicle was packed with machine gun-style weapons, camp food and canisters of gas.
Kevin McMahill, sheriff by which The Metropolitan Police Department also confirmed the name of the suspect and revealed that shortly before the explosion, Livelsberger had been taken from the shooting to the head of the authorities, believed to be dead.
McMahill told investigators that Livelsberger had two legally owned guns with him. The body was cremated without identification, officials added.
Law-enforcement sources have confirmed to local news outlets that the electric vehicle was hired by Turo, a ride-hailing service also involved in the New Orleans attack.
This day has sparked questions, including Joe Biden, Tesla owner Elon Musk and researchers about possible connections between the two cases, among reports from news station Denver 7 Livelsberger and I suspect that in the attack on New Orleans they had been stationed at the same place in the same army.
An unnamed official told the AP that both times involved disruption of the North Carolina base of Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, which was home to Army special forces. The official added that his time did not overlap.
“There is no definitive connection between the attack in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas,” FBI deputy director Christopher Raya told a news conference on Thursday.
The US Army said Livelsberger served as an active duty soldier from 2006 to 2011, before transferring to the National Guard and then the Army Reserve. He joined the army in 2012 and was a special operations soldier.
U.S. Special Operations Command supported Livelsberger’s command and was pardoned at the time of his death.
He served in the Green Berets, a highly trained special forces unit that worked to counter terrorism abroad and train US allies, the army said in a statement. He said he served in the army twice in Afghanistan and in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and DR Congo. He was awarded two bronze stars, one of which was for bravery under fire, an infantry badge, and an army medal for bravery.
FBI conducts operations and searches in Colorado Springs related to Cybertruck explosion; sources told ABC Newswith the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). It is leading to a following of investigators in at least four states and overseas, sources said.
Livelsberger’s recent military role was listed as manager of remote autonomous systems, which he had held for only three months.
Trump’s hotel was not damaged in the explosion. He is the founder of Tesla; Elon Musklater posted in 10 that “they took the bad pants head wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack”. The Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.
The Colorado Springs interviews were linked to Livelsberger and later released by an FBI agent.
McMahill confirmed at a news conference that the truck used in the attack was hired by Turo in Colorado and was driven to Nevada.
McMahill said investigators were able to trace the route from Colorado to Las Vegas so that the driver got out of the parking lot along the way and the truck exploded in front of the hotel 15 to 20 seconds before it exploded.
The sheriff said Musk helped the investigation by having the truck unlocked after it self-locked in the explosion, and by giving investigators the suspect at their stations along his 800-mile route.
McMahill also addressed the political issues surrounding the Las Vegas incident. “It’s a Tesla he emphasized And we know Elon Musk is working with President-Elect Trump. And the tower is the trumpet. So he’s obviously worried about things there,” he said.
A Turo spokesman said in a statement: “We are actively cooperating with law enforcement authorities who are investigating both matters. We do not believe that even the renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had criminal targets who identified them as a security threat.”