The suspect found dead in the Tesla Cybertruck which exploded on Wednesday in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas committed suicide, American authorities said Thursday, specifying that the motivations for this act remained, for the moment, “unknown”.
“We discovered through the medical examiner’s office that the individual had a gunshot wound to the head before the vehicle exploded,” Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference. .
“The 37-year-old man from Colora Springs, Colorado, was identified as the driver of the vehicle in the investigation into the explosion,” police in the southern city later said. -western United States, on his X account.
Citing the Coroner’s office, she said he committed suicide.
“His burned body is unrecognizable,” explained Kevin McMahill, affirming at that time that he could not confirm “100%” that this soldier was the individual found inside the Cybertruck, pending analyzes DNA.
Images posted on social networks showed on Wednesday a gray Cybertruck electric vehicle, parked in front of the entrance to the hotel where the name “Trump” is displayed in large format, exploding in a huge cloud of smoke. The explosion also left seven people lightly injured.
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Motivations still unknown
“The suspect’s motivations remain unknown at this stage. (…) We do not have information that allows us to say with certainty or suggest that it was motivated by a particular ideology,” he said during the same press conference, Spencer Evans, special agent of the FBI.
The authorities found identity papers in the name of this soldier on site.
The suspect is a member of the US Army Special Forces, who was on “approved leave at the time of his death”, a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement.
According to this spokesperson, this decorated soldier enlisted in 2006 and served in the army until 2011, before joining the National Guard then the reserve army, and finally joining the special forces in 2012 .
Semi-automatic handguns found
In the rented Cybertruck Tesla, the authorities found “two semi-automatic handguns”, purchased “legally” on December 30, 2024 by the suspect, added Kenny Cooper, of the federal agency ATF, in charge in particular of questions of firearms.
One of the weapons was found at the foot of the body of the individual present in the vehicle, according to the authorities.
Asked if he could call the act a “suicide mission,” Sheriff McMahill responded, “I have no problem calling it a suicide considering the explosion that happened immediately afterward.”
fgn with agencies
