Driver in Tesla explosion in Las Vegas was US active duty Army soldier
LOS ANGELES -- The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded Wednesday outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger, a US active duty Army soldier, authorities said on Thursday.
Livelsberger had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head prior to the explosion, Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said in a news conference, adding that the vehicle had been rented in Colorado and driven through New Mexico and Arizona before reaching Las Vegas.
Officials said that they located two guns, including a handgun that they believe was used in the Cybertruck.
Livelsberger, a Green Beret operations sergeant, had served in the army since 2006 and spent the majority of his time at Ft. Carson in Colorado and in Germany. The 37-year-old was on approved leave from Germany at the time of the bombing incident.
The Cybertruck pulled up to the glass entrance doors of the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday morning and then exploded. Officials confirmed that seven people were injured in the explosion, with two briefly hospitalized and now released.
Investigators are urgently working to determine a motive and whether the driver intended to set off an explosion and why, said a report of ABC News, noting that "until a motive is determined and other possibilities are ruled out, police are treating the explosion like a possible criminal act and a possible act of terror."
The explosion came hours after a mass killing in New Orleans, Louisiana, that left 14 dead and dozens injured.
Livelsberger and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in the deadly New Orleans attack, both previously served at the Ft. Bragg, in North Carolina, but officials have no record whether they served in the same unit or even the same years. Both also served in Afghanistan in 2009, but investigators don't have any evidence they were in the same location, same province, or the same unit, according to McMahill.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Spencer Evans said in the same news conference that the motivation behind the Las Vegas explosion is still number one priority in their investigation.
