A Cybertruck exploded on Wednesday in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
One person died in the incident, as authorities investigate whether there is a connection to the New Orleans attack.
The suspect who died in the explosion is believed to be an army veteran.
The profile of the victim questions. Just hours after the car-ramming attack in New Orleans, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded in Las Vegas in front of a hotel owned by Donald Trump. An incident which left one victim and seven injured and the motives of which have yet to be determined, while the car was filled with fireworks mortars and cans of gasoline.
According to information released this Thursday, January 2 by the American press, the deceased individual who exploded the vehicle is a 36-year-old resident of Colorado Springs named Matthew Livelsberger. Information which has however not yet been confirmed by the authorities. According to the first elements of the press, just like Shamsud-Din Jabbar for the New Orleans attack, the suspect in the Tesla attack would be an army veteran. According to Denver 7 (new window)the two individuals are even said to have served on the same military base at Fort Bragg (now called Fort Liberty) and in Afghanistan around the same time.
A medal-winning soldier
According to information from CBS (new window)the individual who died in the Cybertruck explosion was on active duty in Germany. He reportedly spent 18 of his 19 years in the military in Special Forces and joined the military as a communications specialist in January 2006 before becoming director of operations and sergeant in February 2023. The man was on leave at the time of the attack and his wife had not heard from him for several days, according to American media sources.
Selon The Independent (new window)the suspect reportedly received the State Department’s “Meritorous Honor Award” for his “interagency contributions” to improving “interoperability” and “effectiveness” while serving with Special Operations Command Forward.” Like the New Orleans attacker, Matthew Livelsberger would have rented his cars on the car-sharing platform Turo.
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For the moment, authorities continue to investigate the Cybertruck explosion as a possible terrorist act. Questioned by the press, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill, however, affirmed that there was no “no indication” allowing a link to be established between the explosion in front of the Trump hotel and the Islamic State (IS) group, unlike the attack in New Orleans.
During a speech Wednesday evening, Joe Biden confirmed that authorities were investigating whether there was “some possible connection” between this explosion and the deadly car-ramming attack, the American president adding that nothing indicated this “so far”. A statement confirmed Thursday evening by a senior FBI official. “At this point, there is no compelling connection between the New Orleans attack and the Las Vegas attack,” declared Christopher Raia during a press conference.
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