Seven people were injured in a car explosion filled with fuel canisters and mortars on New Year’s Day. Officials said all injuries were minor.
The Cybertruck arrived in the city on Wednesday morning, less than two hours before the detonation, police said. A car parked in front of the hotel near the glass entrance started smoking and then exploded.
Authorities said they have not yet determined the motive behind the incident.
“I’m comfortable calling it a suicide with the explosion immediately following,” Sheriff McMahill said during a news conference Thursday.
The sheriff said investigators recovered a military ID, passport, two semi-automatic handguns, fireworks, an iPhone, a smartwatch and several credit cards in Livelsberger’s name from the charred car.
Mr McMahill said they found two tattoos on the driver’s remains that matched Livelsberger’s.
The Colorado Springs native rented a Cybertruck on Dec. 28 in Denver.
Cops were able to track his movements using a series of photos from Denver, Colorado, to Las Vegas, Nevada. He was the only one seen driving the car.
Mr McMahill said there were several parallels – but no definitive link – between the suspects in the Las Vegas incident and the truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people, both of which took place on New Year’s Day.
Both suspects served at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, although there is no indication that they served in the same unit or were there at the same time. They both also served in Afghanistan in 2009, but there is no evidence that they were in the same region or unit.
Both also used the rental company Turo for the cars involved in the incidents, Mr McMahill said.
“We do not believe there is any further threat from this subject or those associated with him here in Las Vegas,” he said.
