The driver of the Cybertruck that exploded outside a Las Vegas hotel Wednesday morning was a US citizen and Army veteran who served at the same Army base as the US-born citizen who attacked revelers in New Orleans hours earlier.
Sources identified the Las Vegas driver as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, although he has not been officially identified by law enforcement, KOAA reported.
Both Livelsberger and Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, s 42-year-old Texan, used the app Turo to rent the trucks they used in their attacks. The sources who spoke with KOAA did not say which Army base the two served at together or whether they served at the same time — Jabbar left active duty in 2015 and served in the Army Reserve until 2020.
Officials in both cities have said they are looking to see if the two attacks are connected but so far have not found definitive evidence linking them. Officials in Las Vegas have not yet labeled the attack there an act of terrorism.
Jabbar rented his Ford pickup truck in Texas and drove to New Orleans, where he skirted around a police car blocked traffic onto Bourbon Street and drove into the crowd at about 3:15 a.m. At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured. Jabbar himself was killed in a shootout with police, who found guns and homemade bombs in his truck.
The FBI is also investigating after surveillance video showed three men and a woman planting bombs elsewhere in the city’s fabled French Quarter.
Livelsberger rented his Cybertruck in Colorado and drove to Las Vegas, arriving at about 7:30 a.m., police there said. He drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard for about an hour before pulling into the main entrance to the Trump International Hotel. Police don’t yet know how the truck exploded — smoke was seen pouring from the wheel wells just prior to the blast, and gasoline canisters, camping fuel canisters, and large fireworks mortars were found in the truck bed after the resulting fire was extinguished.
The driver was killed in the blast and seven other people received minor injuries.
FBI teams were seen at Livelsberg’s Colorado Springs apartment and at Jabbar’s home in Houston later on Wednesday.
A LinkedIn account under the name Matt Livelsberger in Colorado Springs claims he is an active duty soldier, since 2006, working in drone systems management, operations management, and a Green Beret.
Jabbar served as an information technology specialist and had one deployment to Afghanistan, US officials said.
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[Featured image: KLAS and WDSU screenshots]
