Driver of Tesla Cybertruck that exploded at Trump hotel in Las Vegas was an active-duty Army Green Beret, source says
CNN
By Hanna Park, John Miller, Haley Britzky, Kyung Lah and Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday has been identified as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty US Army Green Beret, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
Livelsberger was an Army Special Forces operations master sergeant, a senior enlisted rank, according to four US officials. He was on active duty in Germany with the 10th Special Forces Group but was on leave at the time of the incident, three officials said.
The US Army said Thursday in a statement Livelsberger had died, though did not specifically say he died in the Vegas explosion.
“US Army Special Operations Command can confirm Livelsberger was assigned to the command and on approved leave at the time of his death,” the US Army said. “USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations.”
The US Special Forces, commonly known as the “Green Berets,” bill themselves as an elite fighting force specializing in guerilla warfare and unconventional tactics abroad.
The identity of the man comes a day after the Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump hotel, killing the driver and injuring seven others. A combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel in the bed of the vehicle were detonated by a device controlled by the driver, police said.
A law enforcement official told CNN authorities identified Livelsberger as the driver based on tattoos identified by his wife. Further tests, including DNA, are being conducted to confirm that identification.
The FBI is investigating whether the explosion is tied to terrorism, and officials noted the implications of the Tesla vehicle and the hotel’s namesake.
“It’s a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump tower,” Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said Wednesday. “So, there’s obviously things to be concerned about there, and that’s something we continue to look at.”
The FBI in Denver, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Colorado Springs Police Department are conducting “law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs related to the explosion, the FBI said.
The explosion bore some general similarities to the vehicle attack in New Orleans earlier Wednesday, as both involved a symbolic target on New Year’s Day, a truck rented through the website Turo and a suspect with a military background. Authorities said they are investigating possible links between the two attacks but repeatedly called the Vegas explosion an “isolated incident.”
“At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas,” FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia said Thursday.
How the incident unfolded
The Cybertruck was rented in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, McMahill said.
About an hour later, after driving up and down Las Vegas Boulevard, the truck arrived at the Trump Hotel and detonated, according to authorities.
Surveillance footage captured the driver passing through the driveway of the Trump Hotel about an hour before the explosion. The driver is then seen circling back and stopping in front of the hotel just moments before the car blast, according to a law enforcement official involved in the investigation.
A CCTV video shown by the police captured the moment the truck exploded. In related social media footage, the vehicle is engulfed in smoke while being doused with water.
During a news conference, police shared footage revealing scorched gasoline containers and firework mortars found among the wreckage.
Guests who were staying at Trump International Hotel at the time of the explosion said the windows shook, even more than 40 floors up. The guests, who did not want to be publicly identified, said they saw smoke billowing in the stairwells and coming out of the elevator doors. Elevator service was shut down, and they had to stay on their floor.
On Thursday, damage from the explosion was visible in the Trump hotel’s valet area. Parts of the ceiling had smoke damage, and the gold awning had a hole several feet wide.
Police thank Elon Musk
The explosion could have been significantly worse if not for the vehicle’s body construction, which helped contain the blast, police said.
McMahill said the Cybertruck’s body construction significantly reduced damage in the hotel valet area, as most of the blast was directed upward, leaving the building’s front glass unbroken during the explosion.
“The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast. Up through the truck and out,” he said. “You’ll see that the front glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken by that blast which they were parked directly in front of.”
“I have to thank Elon Musk specifically,” McMahill added, noting that Tesla Motors’ CEO gave authorities “quite a bit of additional information,” including directly sending them video from its charging stations to help with their efforts to track the driver.
”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,” Musk said in a post on X.
“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk added, referring to the automaker’s system that collects and transmits data about a vehicle’s performance and status in real time and can monitor mileage and track the distance traveled, among other features.
Musk has emerged as a key player in Trump’s orbit during the transition to a second White House term. The president-elect has tapped the tech magnate, along with former Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, aimed at cutting government spending.
Some similarities to New Orleans attack
The explosion closely followed a deadly attack in New Orleans, where a driver with a US military background crashed a rented pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s on Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning, killing 14 people.
The man, who was killed in a firefight with police after the attack, was identified as an Army veteran from Texas and had an ISIS flag in his vehicle. He said in videos made before the attack that he had joined the terror group, authorities said.
Turo, which operates an online platform for car owners to lease their vehicles, reported that its service was used to rent vehicles involved in the tragic events in New Orleans and Las Vegas and it is cooperating with the authorities.
“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” a Turo spokesperson told CNN.
McMahill noted that it is merely a “coincidence” that the truck involved in the New Orleans attack was also rented from Turo, and authorities are actively investigating the situation.
“We are absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened in New Orleans as well as other attacks that have been occurring around the world,” McMahill said.
Update: An earlier version of this story included the attacker in the number of people killed in New Orleans. At least 14 people were killed. The attacker is also dead.
CNN’s Chelsea Bailey, Brynn Gingras, Lauren Mascarenhas, Natasha Chen, Paul P. Murphy and Maureen Chowdhury contributed to this report.
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