DDN – The Cybertruck bombing outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day appears to be the suicide of a soldier suffering from PTSD and other conditions, the FBI said Friday.
Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a 37-year-old active duty Army Special Forces man, was identified by police as the driver of the Cybertruck that exploded in the hotel’s valet area on Wednesday morning. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced Thursday that the county coroner determined Livelsberger had shot himself in the head.
According to Sheriff Kevin McMahill, investigators suspect the car was detonated at the same time as the suicide. The detonation was being investigated with assistance from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, McMahill said.
Spencer Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office, said at a news conference Friday that the bureau helped get DNA from a family member to confirm Livelsberger’s identification.
According to Evans, information unearthed by investigators and the Army suggested that Livelsberger most likely suffered from PTSD. Family concerns and personal grievances may have also contributed to Livelsberger renting the automobile in Colorado, loading it with explosives, and detonating it in Las Vegas, according to Evans. The bureau was still investigating the possible causes of the bombing.
“It’s evident that the subject considered, planned and thoughtfully prepared for this act alone — that’s what we believe, and we have no information to the contrary at this point,” Evans told the court.
While the incident occurred outside a Trump property, Evans stated that Livelsberger had no anger toward President-elect Donald Trump. He stated that the bureau learned this through interviews with Livelsberger’s family members, friends, associates, and military personnel with whom he served. Investigators aren’t sure why Livelsberger chose the hotel, Las Vegas, or a Cybertruck for the bombing, McMahill said.
Several more were hurt in the bombing. McMahill stated that they had minor injuries for which they were treated and released from the hospital.
According to Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren of the police department, investigators discovered handwriting on one of the two phones in the Cybertruck’s wreckage. The documents contained a record of his activities in the ten days preceding the explosion and two letters with what Koren described as a mix of “grievances and issues,” some political and some personal.
A day before the attack, Livelsberger sent a confused email to a retired Army intelligence officer and military pundit expressing a series of grievances and ominous warnings about his military career but made no mention of his impending activities.
According to Evans, there was no evidence linking Wednesday’s blast to the deadly terror incident in New Orleans earlier that day.
“The only things we have connecting them are incidental, what we believe to be coincidental, similarities,” Evans told me. He stated that the commonalities include the vehicles being booked through the same provider, both criminals being in the military, and both sleeping at an Airbnb.
“We have identified no telephonic or email communication between the subjects, no information that suggests that they knew each other, that they ever served in the same unit, that they were ever assigned at the same place at the same time and had interaction,” Evans went on.
According to Evans, the FBI has found no evidence linking Livelsberger to a terrorist organization. Livelsberger was not on the bureau’s radar before to the blast, and he had no criminal record, Evans added.
Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver, authorities said Thursday, and detectives were able to track it down using data from charging stations and traffic cameras.
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