‘No evidence’ to connect Las Vegas Cybertruck blast and New Orleans attack, FBI says

There has been no evidence found to link two separate New Year’s Day incidents carried out in Las Vegas and New Orleans by U.S. Army veterans that killed 16 people total and injured dozens more, the FBI said Friday.

At a Friday press conference in Las Vegas, police confirmed the identity of the driver of a rented Tesla Cybertruck that exploded on New Year’s Day outside of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas as Matthew Alan Livelsberger. A former Green Beret, Livelsberger took his own life at the scene, according to police.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, another U.S. citizen and former Army veteran was killed by police in New Orleans after driving a truck into a crowd of people the same day in an apparent act of terrorism inspired by ISIS, killing at least 14 and injuring dozens.

“Just to be clear, there is no evidence that these two events are connected.” FBI special agent Spencer Evans said at Friday’s press conference in Las Vegas. “The only things that we have connecting them are incidental, what we believe to be coincidental similarities in that both vehicles were rented through the same service, that both subjects served in the military, that they both stayed in an Airbnb, things like that.”

Evans added that there was no record of phone communication between the two men, nor evidence to suggest they had known one another.

Police discovered two cellphones — one of which they were able to access — belonging to Livelsberger, Assistant Sheriff Dory Corin told reporters. Entries found in the phone's Notes app contained messages believed to be written by the suspect.

“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call,” one message read. “Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives? Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”

Livelsberger served five combat tours, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said, noting that he likely suffered from PTSD. McMahill added that the evidence that police had found so far suggests he had no negative feelings about President-elect Donald Trump, despite the site of the explosion and the vehicle used.

On Thursday, McMahill said that officials who searched the truck had recovered a military identification and passport belonging to Livelsberger, as well as an iPhone, smartwatch, multiple firearms and fireworks. The FBI searched a Colorado Springs, Colo., residence Wednesday night associated with Livelsberger, Denver 7 News reported.

Agents with the Denver Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Colorado Springs Police Department assisted in the search of the property. The FBI is investigating whether the incident was an act of terrorism and whether there is any connection between Livelsberger, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, and Shamsud-Din Jabbar, another U.S. citizen and former Army veteran who drove a truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans the same day, killing at least 14 and insuring dozens.

DNA evidence provided by Livelsberger's family confirmed that the body found in the burned out Cybertruck was his, McMahill said Friday.

Here’s what we know about Livelsberger and the attack so far.

The attack

Livelsberger rented a Tesla Cybertruck in Colorado using the Turo app and drove it to Las Vegas, stopping along the way to charge the vehicle, according to McMahill.

At 8:40 a.m. local time on New Year’s Day, he detonated the vehicle, which was packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters. It was initially reported that Livelsberger died in the explosion, which also resulted in what have been described as minor injuries to seven other people. However, McMahill said Thursday that the body found inside the vehicle had sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head just before the truck was detonated. On Friday, McMahill said police were still investigating the exact timing of the explosion and Livelsberger's self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Military background

Livelsberger, 37, was a married U.S. Army veteran who, according to his LinkedIn profile, had spent 18 years with the Special Forces. He joined the Green Berets as a communications specialist in 2006. In 2012, he resumed active duty, joining the U.S. Army Special Operations, Axios reported, and was on approved leave when he died.

During his military career, Livelsberger served tours in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the U.S. Army confirmed to the Associated Press. He was also a highly decorated soldier, awarded two Bronze Stars, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.

‘Coincidental similarities’

Both Livelsberger, 37, and Jabbar, 42, were stationed at the North Carolina military base formerly known as Fort Bragg, where some Army special operations units are trained. A military official who spoke with the Associated Press said there had been no overlap in the assignments of the two men at the base.

Jabbar, who said in a video that he had joined ISIS last summer, served in the U.S. Army from 2006 to 2015, and in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, Defense Department officials told NBC News. Like Livelsberger, Jabar served in Afghanistan during the U.S. troop surge there in 2009.

And like Livelsberger, Jabbar also used the Turo app to rent the Ford F-150 pickup truck that he drove from Houston to New Orleans.

“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” a spokesperson for Turo said in a statement.

Both trucks contained explosive materials, though Jabbar, according to the FBI, had planted two improvised explosive devices in coolers: one that was found at the intersection of Bourbon and Orleans streets and one at another intersection about two blocks away from where he rammed his truck into bystanders.