the suspect, a soldier with “unknown” motivations, committed suicide

The suspect found dead in the Tesla Cybertruck which exploded on Wednesday in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States, committed suicide, American authorities said on Thursday, January 2, specifying that the motivations for this act remained, for the time being, “unknown”.

“We discovered, thanks to the medical examiner's office, that the individual had been shot in the head before the vehicle exploded”Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference.

“Matthew Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, has been identified as the driver of the vehicle in the investigation into the explosion”said a little later, the police of this city in the southwest of the United States, on his account X. Citing the medical examiner's office, they specified that he committed suicide.

“His burned body is unrecognizable”explained Mr. McMahill, affirming at that time that he could not confirm “100%” that this soldier was indeed the individual found inside the Cybertruck, awaiting DNA analyses.

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.

Member of the US Army Special Forces

“The suspect’s motives remain unknown at this stage. (…) We do not have information that allows us to say with certainty or suggest that this was motivated by a particular ideology.”declared, 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.

Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a member of the US Army Special Forces, was in “permission approved at the time of his death”a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement. According to this spokesperson, Mr. Livelsberger, a decorated soldier, joined 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.

In the rented Tesla Cybertruck, authorities found “two semi-automatic handguns”purchased “legally” on December 30, 2024 by Mr. Livelsberger, added Kenny Cooper, of the federal agency ATF, responsible in particular for firearms issues. One of the weapons was found at the foot of the body of the individual present in the vehicle, according to the authorities.

“We now have confirmation that the explosion was caused by large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the back of the rented Cybertruck and that it was not linked to the vehicle itself”said Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla. “We have never seen anything like this”had first declared Mr. Musk, also charged by Donald Trump with an extragovernmental mission of deregulation and reduction of public spending in the future government of the elected president.

The rear of the vehicle contained cans of gasoline and “large fireworks mortars”specified Mr. McMahill, who believes that the structure of the Cybertruck had “permit to limit the damage”. “Most of the explosion passed through the [véhicule] from the top and came out. If you watch this video, you'll see that the glass doors of the Trump Hotel weren't even shattered by the explosion.”he said.

The privileged hypothesis of an “isolated event”

This explosion occurred a few hours after a former American soldier is suspected of having driven into a crowd in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, leaving 15 dead and 35 injured. Investigators said they found an Islamic State (IS) flag in the vehicle. The FBI also quickly declared that it was treating the attack in New Orleans as a “act of terrorism”.

“At this point, there is no irrefutable link between the New Orleans attack and the Las Vegas attack”said Christopher Raia, a senior FBI official, during a press conference on Thursday. Earlier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it believed the alleged perpetrator of the attack in New Orleans had acted alone.

There is no information at this time pointing to a connection between Las Vegas bombing suspect Matthew Alan Livelsberger and a “terrorist organization in the world”further clarified agent Spencer Evans. Asked if he could designate this act as a « mission-suicide “, Sheriff McMahill replied: “I have no problem calling it a suicide, considering the explosion that happened immediately afterward. »