Here’s what we know so far about the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas
Authorities on Thursday identified the man behind a New Year’s Day explosion outside Trump International as an active-duty military operations sergeant from Colorado who served in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret.
At a news conference, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Matthew Livelsberger, 37, shot himself in the head Wednesday morning seconds before his rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded, injuring seven bystanders at the resort near the Strip.
Investigators said the motive remains unclear. Spencer Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division, said Thursday that determining a motive remains the No. 1 priority.
Evans said investigators are looking into foreign and domestic leads.
“We know we have a bombing, absolutely, and it’s a bombing that certainly has factors that raise concern,” he said. “It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle. But we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology or any of the reasoning behind it.”
President-elect Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are close allies.
What we know about Livelsberger
Livelsberger served in Germany as a U.S. Army service member but was on leave in Colorado when he drove a rented Cybertruck to Las Vegas, according to McMahill. The sheriff said Livelsberger lived in Colorado Springs and also spent time at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Livelsberger was on active duty from January 2006 to March 2011, according to an Army spokesperson. Livelsberger joined the National Guard from March 2011 to July 2012, followed by the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012, the spokesperson said in an email. He entered active-duty Army service again in December 2012 and was an Army Special Operations soldier. At the time of his death, Livelsberger was part of the Army Special Operations Command, the Army said.
He graduated in 2005 from Bucyrus High School in Ohio, where he was an honors student and lettered in football and baseball, according to a 2006 story in the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum and a 2004 honor roll list in the paper. He enlisted in the military after a football injury, a later article said.
“Livelsberger has completed training with sharpshooter status and shown exemplary leadership skills, which has rewarded him a position as a platoon leader,” the 2006 article said.
A 2009 story in the Telegraph-Forum said he was trying to help children in Afghanistan by collecting clothing and toys.
Livelsberger said he received the Bronze Star for other humanitarian efforts in a 2010 Mansfield, Ohio, News Journal article.
McMahill said investigators found Livelsberger’s military identification, a passport, an iPhone, a smart watch and two recently purchased firearms at the scene.
Livelsberger was a registered ‘No Labels’ voter, according to the El Paso County, Colorado, clerk’s office. He registered with the No Labels party in 2020. His registration was canceled, and then he re-registered in July 2024. He voted in the last election, according to the clerk’s office.
No Labels is a centrist, nonprofit organization formed in 2009 as the brainchild of founding chairman and former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent, and Nancy Jacobson, a political activist.
Online court records show that in 2017, Sara Livelsberger filed for divorce against Matthew Livelsberger in El Paso County, Colorado, where Colorado Springs is located. The divorce appeared to have been finalized the following year, according to a court docket. Attempts to reach Sara Livelsberger were unsuccessful.
Dean Livelsberger, Matthew Livelsberger’s uncle, described his nephew to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Thursday as a patriot and a Trump supporter who had served in the Army Special Forces.
“If he’d have wanted to really hurt anybody, he could have,” he said. “Things are not adding up. That’s why I don’t think it was deliberate. … He had the skill set to cause damage.”
Dean Livelsberger said he had not spoken to his nephew in years but had stayed in touch through social media, where his nephew posted about family, life events and politics, including posts admiring Donald Trump.
Timeline of events
McMahill said Matthew Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 via Turo, a peer-to-peer car rental app. Two days later, according to Kenny Cooper, assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives San Francisco field division, Matthew Livelsberger purchased two semi-automatic firearms.
On Dec. 31, the electric truck charged in Trinidad, Colorado; Las Vegas, New Mexico; Albuquerque; and Gallup, New Mexico, according to the sheriff. Then, on New Year’s Day, it charged in Holbrook, Flagstaff, and Kingman, Arizona before arriving in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it was first spotted at 7:29 a.m., he said.
Surveillance video played at the Thursday news conference showed the Cybertruck driving through the valet area at the Trump property on Fashion Show Drive, then leaving the property and driving up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before returning to the Trump property at 8:39 a.m. and exploding 17 seconds later.
McMahill said Matthew Livelsberger shot himself in the head just prior to the explosion. Video after the blast showed the truck bed filled with consumer fireworks, including mortars and aerial shells, as well as fuel enhancers.
“The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,” Cooper said.
Politicians and hotel guests react
On Thursday, President Joe Biden said he convened with his homeland security team to discuss the attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
“We’re making every resource available to law enforcement to ensure there are no remaining threats to Americans,” he wrote on X.
Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald said he was concerned when he learned that Trump’s hotel was targeted, but he commended the sheriff’s work to secure the area and conduct a thorough investigation.
“He’s done a really good job to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “We’re in different times. We have to watch our surroundings and be cognizant of who we are around.”
McDonald said he was “caught off guard” when he learned that Matthew Livelsberger was a registered No Labels voter. During the election, McDonald discussed politics with several people who expressed losing faith in government and not liking either major party.
“A lot of people just don’t trust the government anymore, and it’s scary,” McDonald said.
A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo said the governor is grateful for the diligent response efforts from law enforcement partners and referred all inquiries to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Dallas Aimer, who was visiting Las Vegas for the holiday from Orange County, California, said he was in his hotel room when he heard a loud bang Wednesday morning.
“I almost thought it was a sonic boom from the local Air Force base,” Aimer said.
Few signs of blast remain
At the hotel Thursday, few signs remained of what happened 24 hours earlier. A worker was seen cleaning the glass doors to the lobby, and a man repaired missing sprinklers surrounded by black marks on the ceiling above the valet stand.
Hotel guests Dan Worley and his wife, Lisa, said they were confused to hear reports of an evacuation on the news from their hotel room on the 22nd floor at Trump International. Dan Worley said there was no mandatory evacuation.
Janet Kwon was not at the hotel for the explosion, but she said she tried to check in to her room later on Wednesday afternoon.
“Everything was blocked off,” Kwon said.
She dropped her husband off near the Fashion Show mall, and she said it took him two hours to get to the hotel, which is less than half a mile away.
“Eventually we just figured out we had to find other accommodations,” she said.
Though she said rooms were hard to find, she and her husband booked two nights at the Sahara. She said they received no initial help from Trump International.
“We got no email, no text,” she said. “Things happen, but just let us know what’s going on, and then what do you want us to do?”
The couple were able to check in to Trump International on Thursday morning, and Kwon said the hotel reimbursed them for their stay at the Sahara.
“It seems like there’s minimal damage as we’re standing here at the valet area,” Kwon said. “We’re just glad no one else was hurt.”
If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, help is available 24/7 by calling or texting the Lifeline network at 988. Live chat is available at 988lifeline.org. Additionally, the Crisis Text Line is a free, national service available 24/7. Text HOME to 741741.
Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.Review-Journal reporters Noble Brigham, Caitlin Lilly, Katelyn Newberg, Jessica Hill, Estelle Atkinson and Mary Hynes contributed to this report.
