COLORADO SPRINGS — Federal agents and local police worked Thursday to determine what led a highly decorated U.S. Army Green Beret from Colorado to blow up a Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.
Wednesday morning, a Tesla electric Cybertruck rented in Denver and filled with consumer-grade firework mortars and camp-fuel canisters exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, just 17 seconds after pulling into the valet area. The explosion left seven people with minor injuries.
The body recovered from the metallic truck was “burnt beyond recognition,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said during a news conference on Thursday.
But police announced hours later that the Clark County, Nevada, coroner positively identified the driver as 37-year-old Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger of Colorado Springs.
Livelsberger died by suicide, the corner ruled. Police investigators said he shot himself moments before the explosion outside the Las Vegas hotel. A handgun was found near his feet inside the burned-out vehicle.
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It wasn’t yet clear how Livelsberger detonated the explosives in the back of the Cybertruck, investigators said. But Kenny Cooper, assistant agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ San Francisco Field Division, said they did little damage, and a number of unexploded fuels and mortars were found in the truck.
“The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,” Cooper said during Thursday’s news conference.
Damage from the blast inside the steel-sided vehicle was mostly limited to the interior of the truck because the explosion “vented out and up” and didn’t hit the Trump hotel doors just a few feet away, the sheriff said.
Livelsberger’s military ID, passport, phone, credit cards and a smart watch were found in the vehicle, alongside two guns he bought this week, McMahill said. Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 and drove it to Las Vegas, McMahill said.
Local FBI agents searched Livelsberger’s home in northeast Colorado Springs on Thursday as they began to piece together his movements and dig for a motive — which they have yet to find.
“We know we have a bombing, absolutely, and it’s a bombing that certainly has factors that raise concerns,” Las Vegas FBI Special Agent in Charge Spencer Evans said during the news conference. “It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building and that it’s a Tesla vehicle, but we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us… it was because of this particular ideology or any reasoning behind it.”
A law enforcement official told the Associated Press that investigators learned through interviews that Livelsberger may have gotten into a fight with his wife about relationship issues shortly before he rented the Tesla and bought the guns. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Decorated solider, normal life
Livelsberger’s neighbors on Thursday described him, his new baby and his wife as normal by all appearances. A welcome mat at their home encourages visitors to “Stay awhile,” and a Christmas wreath hung on the door Thursday.
The couple’s home was well-lit and they often opened their windows when the weather was pleasant, neighbor Keni Mac said.
“It doesn’t seem like they were trying to hide anything,” she said.
Livelsberger was a decorated soldier who previously deployed twice to Afghanistan, served in the National Guard and split most of his time between Fort Carson in Colorado Springs and Germany, McMahill said.
He 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 a total of five Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.
Livelsberger currently served as a special operations soldier assigned to 10th Special Forces Group in Stuttgart, Germany, but was back in Colorado on approved leave, according to the Army’s statement and the sheriff. Neighbors said he’d recently had a baby.
Investigators on Thursday outlined his movements in the days before the bombing.
Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck through the car-rental app Turo in Denver on Dec. 28. Police then tracked him on his multi-state road trip through his stops at Tesla charging stations along the way, McMahill said.
He charged the vehicle in Monument on Dec. 30, then in Trinidad on Dec. 31. He charged at three spots in New Mexico later on Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, he charged in three cities in Arizona and was last tracked in Kingman, Arizona, before entering Las Vegas.
Camera footage shows Livelsberger was the man driving the truck and no one else was seen in the vehicle, McMahill said.
“We’re not aware of any other subjects involved in this particular case,” the sheriff said.
He legally purchased two semi-automatic handguns on Dec. 30 — guns later found in the Cybertruck, the ATF’s Cooper said. Officials did not say where he bought the guns.
On Wednesday, cameras captured the Cybertruck driving to the Trump hotel valet at about 7:35 a.m. The driver quickly pulled away and spent 45 minutes in a parking lot at a nearby business before driving back to the hotel, arriving at 8:39 a.m. The explosion immediately followed.
Investigation reaches Colorado, goes global
Investigators spent several hours at Livelsberger’s home in Colorado Springs on Thursday morning, part of many investigative steps taking place across the country and internationally, Evans said.
The Eastside Landing complex where the FBI searched Thursday morning is filled with uniform, boxy multi-family homes tucked near Colorado Springs’ northeast border.
Cindy Helwig, who lives a few doors down from the property the FBI searched, said she knew Livelsberger, whom she knew only as “Matthew,” from typical neighborly interactions, like chatting with him while walking her dog.
He visited a couple of weeks ago to ask to borrow a tool for a vehicle he was working on, she said, though she didn’t have the tool.
The man just had a baby, she said, and she often saw his wife around the neighborhood.
“My heart goes out to her,” Helwig said. “She’s such a sweet lady.”
Helwig said the neighborhood was rattled by the possibility that the man was part of a larger plot.
“I’ll be honest, I feel unsafe right now, a little uneasy,” she said.
Livelsberger has no criminal history in Colorado, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. El Paso County marriage records show Livelsberger re-married in 2022 after a divorce in 2018.
Mac, the neighbor, said she last saw Livelsberger’s wife around 11 a.m. New Year’s Day when she walked the family’s dog, a Belgian Malinois. She knew Livelsberger through HOA meetings and dog walks, she said.
“I’ve seen him walking his dog, taking out the trash, normal things,” Mac said.
Livelsberger’s family, wife and ex-wife could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Similarities, but no link, to New Orleans attack
The explosion in Las Vegas came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. The FBI on Thursday said it now believes Jabbar acted alone.
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, though there are a number of similarities between the two incidents.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran, 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.
Both men were also deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, McMahill said, but not in the same location or unit. Both men also used Turo to rent the vehicles they used.
“If these turn out to be simply similarities — very strange similarities to have,” McMahill said. “We’re not prepared to rule in or rule out anything at this point. There’s lots more for us to do in this investigation.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.