The Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside Trump’s Trump International hotel on New Year’s Day was a suicide, not a terrorist attack, the FBI said. So there is no connection to the attack in , in which 14 people lost their lives.
Police identified 37-year-old Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty member of the Army’s Special Forces, as of Wednesday morning (1/1). The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced that the county medical examiner determined that Leavelsberger shot himself in the head.
Investigators believe the car blew up at the same time as the suicide, Sheriff’s Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters.
NEW: Video shows Tesla Cybertruck explosion at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. No word yet on the cause
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The 37-year-old has post-traumatic stress
The investigation showed that the 37-year-old suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), “family issues or personal bitterness”, which prompted him to pack the vehicle with explosives and detonate it in Las Vegas. “It’s obvious that he carefully thought out, planned and prepared this act on his own – that’s what we believe and we have no information to the contrary,” Evans said.
Although the bombing took place outside a Trump hotel, Levelsberger had no animosity toward the president-elect, Evans said. Investigators do not know why Leavelsberger chose the hotel, Las Vegas or a Cybertruck for the bombing.
The letters and the diary
During the bombing there were slightly injured people who were taken to the hospital and given first aid. The investigators found two letters with complaints made by the perpetrator and a diary in which he recorded what he had done 10 days before his suicide.
A day earlier Lievelsberger had sent an email to a retired army intelligence officer complaining about his military service, but giving no indication of what he planned to do.
The only similarities to the New Orleans attack are that the vehicles were rented through the same service, the two attackers served in the military, and both were staying at Airbnb.
According to Evans, no phone or electronic communication has been found between the individuals, they do not appear to have known each other, they never served in the same unit and they had no interaction.
The Cybertruck had been rented in Denver by Lievelsberger, police said Thursday, and investigators were able to trace its route using data from charging stations and traffic cameras.
