A soldier who died in an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck at Trump's Las Vegas hotel left a note calling the stunt a “wake-up call” for the nation's ills, investigators said Friday.
Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colo., apparently bore no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, Clark County sheriff's officials said.
Livelsberger wrote in the note that he needed to “cleanse my mind” of the lives he knew he had lost and “the burden of the lives I had taken.”
“Although this incident is more public and sensitive than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues,” FBI special agent Spencer Evans said at a news conference.
The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but almost no damage was done to the hotel.
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake-up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. to send out only parts of it.
Investigators have identified the Tesla driver — who was shot without identification — as the Clark County coroner's office says it was a suicide with a gunshot wound.
Pentagon officials have declined to say whether Livelsberger may have been suffering from mental health issues but say they have turned over his medical records to police.
The new details came as investigators tried to determine Livelsberger's motive, including whether he wanted to make a political point with the Tesla and the hotel that bears the head's name. – sitting
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently become a member of Trump's inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk were in Las Vegas early Wednesday, the day of the explosion. The two had attended Trump's New Year's Eve party at his South Florida estate.
Musk spent about $250 million during the presidential campaign to support Trump, who has named Musk, the richest man in the world, to co-lead a new effort to find ways to to cut the size and spending of government.
Investigators suspect that Livelsberger may have been planning a more serious attack, but the steel-sided vehicle absorbed much of the force from the improvised explosive device.
Investigators previously said Livelsberger shot himself in the head inside the Tesla Cybertruck full of fireworks just before it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on the New Year.
“It's not lost on us that in front of the Trump building, it's a Tesla vehicle, but we don't have information at this point that tells or suggests for sure that it's because of this particular ideology which he was,” said FBI Evans, said Thursday at a press conference.
At a news conference Thursday, authorities said a man they believe was a fully-equipped military soldier shot himself in the head before the Tesla Cybertruck he was in burst into flames outside a home Donald Trump's hotel in Las Vegas. Investigators have not definitively identified the remains as Matthew Livelsberger, but the IDs and tattoos on the body 'strongly indicate that it is him,' said Sheriff Kevin McMahill of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Asked Friday if Livelsberger had struggled with any mental health issues that might have prompted his suicide, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that “the department turned over all medical records to local law enforcement.”
A law enforcement official said investigators learned through interviews that Livelsberger may have fought with his wife over relationship issues shortly before he rented the Tesla on Saturday and bought the guns. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Authorities are still working to determine a motive. Among the burned items found inside the truck were a handgun at Livelsberger's feet, another firearm, fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch, McMahill said. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.
Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces that work to fight terrorism overseas and train partners. He had been in the military since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the t -army. He had recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on leave when he died, according to a US official.
He received a total of five Bronze Stars, including one with a gallantry device for courage under fire, a battle badge and a military commendation medal for valor.
Authorities searched a townhouse in the town of Livelsberger on Thursday as part of the investigation. The neighbors said that the man who lived there had a wife and a child.
Cindy Helwig, who lives across a narrow street separating the homes, said she last saw the man she knew as Matthew two weeks ago when he asked her if he could to get a loan he needed to fix an SUV he was working on.
“He was a normal guy,” said Helwig, who said she last saw the wife and child earlier this week.
The explosion on the truck, packed with fireworks mortars and canisters of camp fuel, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar plowed a truck into a crowd in New York's famous French Quarter. Orleans early on New Year's Day, killing at least 14 people before being shot dead by police. The FBI says it believes Jabbar acted alone and is investigating it as a terrorist attack.
Chris Raia, deputy director of the FBI, said Thursday that officials have not found a “definitive link” between the New Orleans attack and the Las Vegas truck bombing.
