Police positively identify driver of exploded Tesla Cybertruck as US Army soldier

Officials on Thursday positively identified the person found dead inside the Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas as a U.S. Army soldier from Colorado, while the FBI said it was not yet clear if the blast was an act of terrorism.

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 in Las Vegas later on the same day, which left seven people with minor injuries.

The Cybertruck driver was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, an active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs, and police said he acted alone.

Livelsberger killed himself with a gunshot to the mouth, police said, citing a report from the Clark County Coroner/Medical Examiner, according to a post on X by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Livelsberger was inside the vehicle when gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the truck bed exploded, police said.

Police previously had told a press conference they believed the person found in the truck was Livelsberger, but because the body was burned beyond recognition, investigators were awaiting confirmation from DNA evidence and medical records.

Livelsberger shot himself just before explosives in the vehicle were detonated, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters. 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 had 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 relative 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 there had been 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.

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.

TRUMP BUILDING, TESLA VEHICLE

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. The president-elect's son Eric Trump, an executive with the Trump Organization, praised Las Vegas fire and law enforcement officials on Wednesday for their quick action following the explosion.

Tesla <TSLA.O> 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, of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, 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 following the explosion.

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.

(Reporting by Ronda Churchill in Las Vegas, Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru, Hannah Lang and Karen Brettell in New York, Rich McKay in Atlanta and David Shepardson, Jasper Ward and Ismail Shakil in Washington; Additional reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Scott Malone, Donna Bryson, Nick Zieminski, Daniel Wallis, Cynthia Osterman and Leslie Adler)