The suspect who leased the Cybertruck that detonated outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on New Year’s Day has been identified as US Army Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, a Special Operations soldier on vacation from his station in Germany, according to investigators.
After a day of investigating the bodies discovered inside the vehicle, the Clark County Coroner verified Livelsberger was the driver, according to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department.
The coroner’s office reported Livelsberger died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and a revolver was discovered at his feet.
According to a BATFE spokeswoman, he legally acquired two semiautomatic guns on Monday.
Seven individuals were injured when the truck, which was loaded with fireworks-style mortars and gas canisters, exploded approximately 8:40 a.m. PT.
Investigators believe the explosion was purposeful, but have not found a motive, Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters at a press conference Thursday.
As the inquiry into the blast continues, details about Livelsberger emerge from the Army and those who knew him.
Livelsberger’s wife told investigators that her husband had been away from their Colorado Springs, Colorado, home since around Christmas due to a disagreement over allegations of infidelity, according to an official briefed on the investigation. She also stated that her husband would not harm anyone.
A Livelsberger relative who asked not to be named told AWN that he had recently married and had a baby.
According to filings from Ohio’s Franklin County Probate Court, a wedding license was issued to Matthew Alan Livelsberger and Sara Elizabeth Wilson on December 3, 2012. A different family member informed AWN that Livelsberger had divorced and remarried.
AWN has yet to discover divorce documents, but court records reveal that Livelsberger and Jennifer Anne Davis filed for marriage on July 8, 2022, in El Paso County, Colorado. Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Calling Livelsberger a “patriot” who “loved his country,” the aforementioned unnamed relative said he believed the incident in Las Vegas was possibly an accident, characterizing Livelsberger as the “last person in the world to do anything like this, and the last person in the world to take his own life and hurt anyone.”
Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas Division, told reporters that it was too soon to speculate on any political motivations behind the attack. Livelsberger allegedly supported President-elect Donald Trump, according to an official briefed on the probe.
“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 suggest it was because of this particular ideology or any of the reasoning behind it,” Evans went on:
Livelsberger’s relative recalled that he was a Trump fan throughout his first term, stating that “Trump was a soldier’s best friend.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a prominent Trump donor who has advised the president-elect, has been aiding with the investigation, according to officials, including providing investigators with video of Livelsberger at Tesla charging stations throughout his path from Colorado to Las Vegas.
According to the spokesperson, Livelsberger enlisted in the Army as a Special Forces candidate and served on active service from January 2006 to March 2011, then joining the National Guard and serving until July 2012, followed by a tour in the Army Reserve from July to December 2012. The statement stated that in December 2012, he returned to active service as a Special Operations soldier.
Law enforcement officials verified that Livelsberger worked for the Army in a variety of capacities, including communications, intelligence, and operations, for about two decades. According to his LinkedIn page, he worked as a contractor for an image analysis technology business in Charlotte, North Carolina, for 11 months from 2011 to 2012.
He was stationed at Fort Liberty in North Carolina and deployed to Afghanistan three times, according to the spokeswoman.
According to McMahill, Livelsberger was a Green Beret operations sergeant who spent the most of his time in Fort Carson, Colorado, near Colorado Springs, and in Germany.
According to the United States Army Special Operations Command, he was on granted leave from the Army when he died.
According to an Army official, Livelsberger got several commendations during his military career, including one Bronze Star with a “V” decoration for heroism and four other Bronze Stars.
“USASOC is in full cooperation with federal and state law enforcement agencies, but as a matter of policy, will not comment on ongoing investigations,” a spokeswoman informed me.
Livelsberger also mentioned on his LinkedIn profile that he received the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award in 2016 for “interagency contributions that resulted in increased interoperability and efficiency” while working as an operations sergeant at the US embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
AWN contacted the State Department about this grant, but did not receive an instant answer.
Livelsberger hired the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 through the car-sharing app Turo, which was also used by the suspect in the New Orleans attack on New Year’s Day, though authorities have found no relation between the two crimes.
According to the official, Livelsberger informed the truck’s owner that he planned to camp at the Grand Canyon.
