Man shot himself before Tesla explosion outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel
A soldier inside a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel shot himself in the head before the vehicle combusted.
The man, who has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, had a handgun at his feet and sustained a gunshot wound that appeared to be self-inflicted, said Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill in a press conference on Thursday.
The explosion on Wednesday in the valet area did not damage the Trump International Hotel doors and instead ‘vented our and up’, said McMahill.
FBI Deputy Assistant Director Chris Raia said that there has been ‘no definitive link’ found between the Cybertruck explosion and an attack hours earlier on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in which a truck driver rammed into and killed 14 people celebrating the New Year.
Besides the handgun, authorities also recovered another firearm, multiple fireworks, a military ID, an iPhone, a smartwatch, a passport and credit cards, according to the sheriff. Both of the guns were bought legally.
While detectives on Thursday identified the remains as belonging to Livelsberger. The IDs found in the vehicle and tattoos on the body of the man ‘give a strong indication that it’s him’, McMahill said earlier.
Livelsberger joined the US Army since 2006 and was serving in the highly trained special forces to fight foreign terrorism. He had received five Bronze Stars and was on approved leave at the time of the incident.
‘The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,’ said Kenny Cooper, a special agent overseeing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Car charging station photos showed that Livelsberger was driving the Cybertruck and was alone.
‘We’re not aware of any other subjects involved in this particular case,’ McMahill said.
Seven people near the Cybertruck sustained minor injuries.
The FBI on Thursday stated that it was ‘conducting law enforcement activity’ at a Colorado Springs home and did not immediately provide more details.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who will be working within the Trump administration, said on Wednesday 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’.
Trump and Musk were at the president-elect’s New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago in Florida instead of in Las Vegas when the explosion occurred.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.