A highly decorated Army soldier who fatally shot himself in a Tesla Cybertruck just before it exploded outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas left notes saying the New Year’s Day explosion was a stunt that served as a “wake-up call” for the ills of the country, researchers. he said on Friday.
Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, also wrote in notes left on his cell phone that he needed to “clear” his mind “of the brothers I have lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.” . Livelsberger served in the Army since 2006 and deployed twice to Afghanistan.
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake-up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacle and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt involving fireworks and explosives,” Livelsberger wrote in a letter found by authorities and published Friday.
The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people, but virtually no damage to the Trump International Hotel. Authorities said Livelsberger acted alone.
Livelsberger’s letters covered a variety of topics including political grievances, social problems, and both domestic and international issues, including the war in Ukraine. He said in a letter that the United States was “terminally ill and headed toward collapse.”
Meanwhile, Tesla engineers helped extract data from the Cybertruck for investigators, including Livelsberger’s path between charging stations from Colorado through New Mexico and Arizona and to Las Vegas, according to Sheriff’s Deputy Dori Koren.
“We still have a large volume of data to analyze,” Koren said Friday. “There are thousands, if not millions, of videos, photographs, documents, web history and all those things that need to be analyzed.”
The undated photo shows the Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
The new details came as investigators were still trying to determine whether Livelsberger was seeking to make a political statement with the Tesla and the hotel named after the president-elect.
Livelsberger harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, law enforcement officials said. In one of the notes he left, he said the country needed to “unite around” Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk were in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the day of the explosion. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
“Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a highly decorated combat veteran who was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues,” said Spencer Evans, the FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas. Vegas said Friday.
Livelsberger died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Investigators have not yet explained how Livelsberger shot himself inside the Cybertruck and at the same time ignited fireworks and camp fuel packed inside, causing the explosion.
Among the charred items found inside were a gun at Livelsberger’s feet, another firearm, fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.
In recent years, Livelsberger confided in Alicia Arritt, a former girlfriend who had served as an Army nurse, that she was facing significant pain and exhaustion that she attributed to a traumatic brain injury.
He opened up to Arritt, 39, whom he met and began dating in Colorado in 2018, about exhaustion, the pain that kept him awake at night and reliving the violence of his deployment to Afghanistan, Arritt said.
“My life has been a personal hell for the last year,” he told Arritt in text messages during their early days of dating that she shared with The Associated Press.
The undated photo shows an ID belonging to Matthew Livelsberger, found inside a Tesla Cybertruck involved in an explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
The Green Berets are highly trained US Army special forces specializing in guerrilla warfare and unconventional combat tactics. Livelsberger rose through the ranks and was deployed twice to Afghanistan and served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, according to the Army. He recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died.
He received five bronze stars, including one with a valor under fire badge, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal for valor.
Authorities on Thursday searched a home in Colorado Springs, Livelsberger’s hometown, as part of the investigation. Neighbors said the man who lived there had a wife and a baby.
The neighbor across the street, Cindy Helwig, said she last saw him when he asked to borrow a tool to fix a truck.
“He was a normal guy,” Helwig said.
The explosion occurred hours after Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, plowed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famous French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people before being shot dead by the police. The FBI says it believes Jabbar acted alone and that it is being investigated as a terrorist attack.
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Copp, Richer and Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Ken Ritter and Ty ONeil in Las Vegas contributed; Colleen Slevin in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.
