Officials are sharing an update on their investigation Thursday afternoon Tesla Cybertruck explodes On New Year's Day, one person was killed outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department addressing the investigation at a briefing. The livestream of the briefing is available to watch using the player above.
According to law enforcement, the explosion that occurred Wednesday morning is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, but investigators do not believe there is any threat to the community, FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz told a reporter that evening. Said at the conference. McMahill had previously called the blast “an isolated incident” and said there was no indication it was linked to ISIS, as the blast occurred just hours after it was deliberately detonated by an individual. Driven a pickup truck waving the black flag of ISIS Among the crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
One person inside a vehicle was killed and seven people were slightly injured in the fire in Las Vegas, McMahill said. Law enforcement sources told CBS News that Matthew Allen Livelsberger, a 37-year-old active duty intelligence sergeant in the U.S. Army Special Forces, had rented the Cybertruck.
But officials in Nevada were waiting for dental records and results of DNA testing to verify the identity of the person driving the truck at the time of the explosion.
“We know who rented the truck. We're looking for that person,” McMahill said Wednesday. Authorities declined to release the man's name before confirming his identity.
Law enforcement sources said Livelsberger was stationed in Germany but was on leave in Colorado at the time of the explosion. Two of Livelsberger's relatives told CBS News that they were unaware of his involvement in the incident but confirmed that he had rented a Cybertruck. A relative said his wife had not heard from him for several days.
Federal agents investigating the explosion have been at Livelsberger's townhome in Colorado Springs since Wednesday night, CBS Colorado reports. No one has been expelled there during the investigation.
The 2024 Cybertruck was leased in Colorado, McMahill said. According to the Las Vegas Sheriff, it reached the glass entrance of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas about 15 seconds before the explosion. He told reporters that gasoline canisters, camping fuel canisters and large fireworks mortars were found in the back of the truck, although it was unclear how the explosives were ignited.