Cybertruck Driver, a Green Beret, Died by Suicide Before Blast at Las Vegas Hotel
The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
(TNS)
A Green Beret, who authorities said shot himself inside a Tesla Cybertruck on New Year's Day seconds before the vehicle exploded in front of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel in Las Vegas, was a Colorado Springs resident who had spent the majority of his 19-year military career at Fort Carson and on assignment in Germany, according to the U.S. Army and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger was on approved leave from the 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, when the electric truck he rented in Denver on Dec. 28 exploded in the valet drive-through of the International Trump Hotel, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday at a press conference.
Livelsberger, 37, enlisted in January 2006 as an 18X, or a candidate for Special Forces, a statement from the Army said. He was active duty until 2011 when he joined the National Guard. He spent a little more than a year in the guard, from March 2011 to July 2012, and he served in the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012.
Electric-charging station tracking shows Livelsberger charged the vehicle in Monument on Monday and also picked up two semi-automatic handguns that day he had legally purchased . He stopped in Trinidad, Las Vegas, N.M., Albuquerque and Gallup, N.M., on Tuesday to charge the truck. His route took him to Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman, Ariz., before being videoed on Las Vegas Boulevard early Wednesday morning.
He pulled into the Trump hotel valet area around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, and within 17 seconds the truck exploded while parked at the valet pull-up, McMahill said.
Livelsberger's body was "burnt beyond recognition," the Las Vegas sheriff said, but tattoos on an arm and stomach, surveillance video and electric-charging station tracking shows he was the only driver of the truck.
"We still have only ever seen him in this vehicle," McMahill said. "We are not aware of any other subjects involved in this particular case."
Investigators found a military ID, a passport, two semi-automatic firearms, an iPhone, a Smart Watch and several credit cards in his name.
The Las Vegas coroner's office found one single bullet hole in the head of the body and "a handgun found at his feet inside the vehicle," McMahill said.
Authorities believe the fatal wound was self-inflicted, since he was the only person in the vehicle and it occurred prior to the truck blowing up.
"I’m comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately thereafter," said Spencer Evans, FBI special agent in charge.
In the truck bed were fireworks, mortars, arterial shells and accelerants including racing fuel, authorities said.
Seven people nearby had minor injuries and several were taken to a hospital, according to officials.
Livelsberger's motivation is unknown at this time, and FBI and ATF officials said they are investigating hundreds of tips worldwide.
"We are following international and domestic leads with search warrants, witness interviews and investigative activity literally taking place around the globe," Evans said.
"We don't believe there's any further threat from this subject or anybody related to that."
FBI descends on Colorado Springs home as Las Vegas Cybertruck investigation continues
Vehicles attached with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived at a townhouse complex in northeast Colorado Springs on Thursday morning as the investigation connected to an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel continued.
What we know about the bombing suspect
Vehicles with the FBI arrived on Thursday morning at a townhouse complex in northeast Colorado Springs connected to Livelsberger, as the investigation into the Las Vegas explosion continued.
At around 7:30 a.m., Gazette reporters saw multiple FBI vehicles at the 5400 block of Carvel Grove, near the corner of Stetson Hills Boulevard and Marksheffel Road.
Records show Livelsberger was connected to multiple Colorado Springs addresses, including that residence.
He was known as Matt Berg in many places, including an online profile, and as an alias when he appeared in a 2013 war-game TV series, "Ultimate Soldier Challenge," which featured Livelsberger as one of two Green Berets who were pitted against a pair of Norwegian Special Forces commandos.
It's unclear whether Livelsberger was an active-duty soldier when he participated in the 43-minute movie, but he was billed as a United States Special Forces soldier. The Norwegians were actually actors playing the part of members of the Forsvarets Spesialkommando, or FSK. In a made-up battle scenario, Livelsberger and his partner shot assault rifles at targets, fought in hand-to-hand combat and went door-to-door in the hunt for combatants in a fake village in what was billed as a "showdown of elite strength and skill."
Livelsberger was also a drone hobbyist who posted about his projects in a Facebook group online. The 10th Special Forces Group has been developing small drones in-house to gather information and carry weapons, according to previous Gazette reporting.
Since November, Livelsberger has been working as a remote and autonomous systems manager for the Army, his LinkedIn page states.
He registered to vote as unaffiliated at his current address in July, according to voter registration records.
Comments from people who knew Matthew Livelsberger paint a Jeckyll-and-Hyde picture.
One neighbor in the northeast Colorado Springs neighborhood who asked not to be identified described Livelsberger as “quiet but polite.”
Another neighbor, Cindy Helwig, said she's known Livelsberger and his current wife, who recently had a baby, for two years.
She said she was shocked to learn the bombing suspect was her neighbor.
“He seemed like a normal guy,” Helwig said Thursday morning. “His wife is awesome, too. I never expected anything like that. I would never have thought it would have been him.”
Helwig describes the neighborhood as usually very quiet and peaceful.
“This is a good neighborhood; you never have issues,” she said. “I’m a little worried now. I hope things get better.”
Keni Mac and her fiancé, who live directly behind Livelsberger's home, said they were in shock after seeing all the police activity happening overnight and into the morning.
She said she would see Livelsberger, his wife and their newborn at HOA meetings.
"Just to know if it was that family, if it is, is really heartbreaking," she said. "They seem like good people. They're a normal young couple with a family. They always have their windows open, they're in and out with their dog. Doesn't seem like they're hiding anything."
In a different take on the suspect, a close friend of Livelsberger's ex-wife told The Gazette she was stunned when she woke up Thursday to learn that the soldier she knew as "bizarre and unhealthy" was the person who planned and carried out the Las Vegas explosion.
Stacie Wilssens, who lives in Manitou Springs, knew Livelsberger through his former wife, Sara Livelsberger.
The two women hit it off as friends around 2012 after the Livelsbergers moved to Colorado Springs for Matthew Livelsberger's job with the military. The couple divorced in 2018.
Wilssens said that Sara Livelsberger was often alone when her husband was deployed overseas, which left her struggling and depressed.
Livelsberger had a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.
Wilssens mostly hung out with Sara when her husband was not around because Wilssens disliked being around him. The two were "polar opposites," her friend said.
"She was trying to get healthy, and he would mock her," said Wilssens. "He preyed on her."
Wilssens said she and Sara were staunch Bernie Sanders supporters during the 2016 election, and Matthew Livelsberger, whom she described as a conservative thinker, supported Donald Trump, which she believes was a major ideology disconnect.
Wilssens said that she hasn't spoken with Matthew Livelsberger for years. Sara, she said, left Colorado after their divorce and has since remarried.
Documents obtained by The Denver Gazette indicate that Sara Livelsberger started divorce proceedings in July 2017, and the couple's split was final almost exactly a year later.
"Nothing ever felt stable or steady between the two of them," Wilssens said.
As an active-duty soldier, Livelsberger, would have been required to go through an annual mental health screening, according to a 2024 Congressional report.
He would have been screened for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol use and suicide risk. The Gazette was unable to confirm on Thursday whether such yearly exams had been conducted.
Connection unknown
The Las Vegas explosion came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That incident is being investigated as a terrorist attack. Authorities said on Wednesday they did not think he acted alone but updated that statement Thursday, saying they now believe he was a lone attacker.
Whether the bombing in Las Vegas and the mass attack by the truck in New Orleans are connected or not is unknown, nor is the question of whether the attacks were politically motivated, authorities said at Thursday's press conference in Las Vegas.
"It's not lost on us that it's in front of the Trump building," Spencer Evans, the FBI agent leading the investigation, said during the press conference. "We don't have evidence showing it was because of ideology."
There are some similarities between the violent acts, McMahill said.
Both suspects, who are deceased, served in the military at Fort Bragg, N.C. However, "We have no record they served in the same unit or even the same years at Fort Bragg," McMahill said. Both served in Afghanistan in 2009, however, "We don't have any evidence they were in the same province, location or even the same unit."
Gazette reporters Mary Shinn, Zachary Dupont, Carol McKinley, O'Dell Isaac, Natasha Lynn and Debbie Kelley contributed to this report.
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