The person who died when a Tesla Cybertruck packed with explosives exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel was an active-duty U.S. Army soldier, officials said Thursday.
Two law enforcement officials identified the man inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck as Matthew Livelsberger. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Livelsberger was a member of the Army’s elite Green Berets, a special forces unit and guerrilla warfare experts, according to an Army statement. He had served in the military since 2006, rising through the ranks, and was on approved leave when he died, the statement said. Green Berets work to fight terrorists abroad using unconventional techniques.
Livelsberger spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive military base in North Carolina that is home to the Army’s special forces command.
One person died and seven others were injured Wednesday when a Tesla Cybertruck that appeared to be carrying fireworks caught fire and exploded at a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, authorities said.
The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs, Colo., in connection with Wednesday’s explosion, but gave no other details.
The explosion of the truck, packed with firecracker mortars and canisters of camping fuel, came hours after Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day. killing at least 14 people before. being shot dead by the police.
That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack and police believe the driver was acting alone.
Jabbar, a US Army veteran, also spent time at Fort Bragg, now Fort Liberty, but an official said so far there is no overlap in their duties there.
The investigation so far has not shown that the incidents in Las Vegas and New Orleans are connected, and authorities do not think the men knew each other, the two law enforcement officials said.
Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “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 the vehicle”.
“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote.
Authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, sheriff of the police department Kevin McMahill said Wednesday.
