What we know about the driver who exploded a Cybertruck in Las Vegas

(CNN) — Law enforcement officials gave some insight Friday on why a five-time Bronze Star recipient and new father would orchestrate a suicidal New Year’s Day explosion, saying he wrote of “political grievances,” armed conflicts elsewhere as well as domestic issues in the days leading up to the blast in Las Vegas.

One of two letters shared by police show Matthew Alan Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado, said the incident was intended not as a “terrorist attack” but rather “a wake-up call,” saying “Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence” and “fireworks and explosives” were best to get his point across.

A second letter that police believe Livelsberger wrote called for action to remove Democrats from both the federal government and the military. That letter also included the possibility of occupying roads and federal buildings, not ruling out the use of force.

The writings – the first letter containing more than 400 words, and the second containing fewer than 125 – were found in Livelsberger’s cell phone, as well as a 10-day “journal of activity” or “surveillance log” from December 21 to December 31, which chronicled his purchases of firearms, camping equipment and other items.

An ex-girlfriend, Alicia Artist, who dated Livelsberger from 2018 to 2019 and from 2020 to about 2022, told CNN on Saturday he had been depressed while they were together.

“He would tell me he had depression. Like, ‘We can’t hang out today; I’m too depressed today,’” Arritt told CNN. “He had a lot of inner strength, and he would just push through it.”

Livelsberger suffered concussions, but it’s not clear how many, and also had back surgeries in 2018 and 2019 relating to injuries he suffered during his military service, she said.

The AP reported that Livelsberger spoke of injuries, pain and exhaustion in texts to Arritt while they were dating, at one point writing: “My life has been a personal hell for the last year … It’s refreshing to have such a nice person come along.”

US officials familiar with Livelsberger’s military records told CNN he had been diagnosed with depression last year but had not been assessed to be a risk of violence or suicide.

An active-duty US Army Green Beret, Livelsberger was on leave from his base in Germany at the time of the blast – a combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel in the bed of the vehicle detonated by a device controlled by the driver, sources told CNN. According to law enforcement, he shot and killed himself in the driver’s seat shortly before the explosive in the trunk of the Tesla detonated.

Livelsberger’s body was so badly burned, authorities identified him through charred identification cards and partial tattoos visible on his body. Law enforcement officials officially confirmed Friday it was Livelsberger’s body.

Political views and ‘personal grievances’

Investigators fanned out after the incident, interviewing his family and friends and digging into phones and computers for clues. Livelsberger’s social media presence was sparse and, at the time of the explosion, contained few if any references to politics.

A family member and former Army colleague described him as a highly decorated combat veteran whose background in special forces and explosives seemed at odds with a blast which relied, in part, on fireworks.

And, they said, Livelsberger had a strong love of country – particularly the president-elect.

“When President Trump was in office, (Livelsberger) would comment on his Facebook page about the things President Trump had said or done or how he’s helping the military,” the relative, who asked not to be named, told CNN. “Matt had a lot of respect for Mr. Trump – he just loved the guy.”

Livelsberger was not affiliated with a political party, according to the Colorado secretary of state voter registration database.

In the first letter released Friday by police, he wrote before the incident he needed to “cleanse” his mind of the “brothers I’ve lost” and relieve himself of “the burden of the lives I took.”

Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas division, said the incident appeared to be “a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues.”

Evans said “other family issues or personal grievances in his own life … may have been contributing factors” in the man’s actions in Las Vegas. “It’s evident that the subject considered, planned and thoughtfully prepared for this act alone,” he added.

“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of … the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle,” Evans said at a news conference Thursday. “But we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us, or suggests, it was because of this particular ideology.”

The first of Livelsberger’s letters shared by police Friday show he supported President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and thought the country was “terminally ill and headed towards collapse.”

The day before the blast, Livelsberger appears to have sent an email to some online media outlets saying he was in possession of a “massive VBIED,” or vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, and was armed, according to a copy reviewed by CNN.

Law enforcement has reviewed the message and examined where the email originated and believe it was written by Livelsberger, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation confirmed to CNN. The email expressed conspiratorial concerns about government agencies “tracking” him and suggested he had planned to travel to the US-Mexico border. The writing CNN reviewed did not make any reference to the president-elect, Trump Hotel in Las Vegas or Tesla.

Two deadly attacks

The Las Vegas explosion bore some striking similarities to a deadly attack in New Orleans earlier the same morning, when a driver with a US military background plowed a rented pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s on Bourbon Street, killing 14 people. Both perpetrators used the company called Turo to rent their vehicles.

“Both of the subjects served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,” said Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, at a Thursday news conference, in reference to the military base now known as Fort Liberty. “What we do know about that is it’s a very large military base, and we have no record that they served in the same unit or even at the same years at Fort Bragg.”

McMahill added both men served in Afghanistan in 2009, though there are no indications they served in the same unit or province.

Law enforcement analysts assessed there is no connection between the incidents in Las Vegas and New Orleans, a law enforcement source familiar with the latest intelligence assessment told CNN.

Decorated military service

A fellow member of the Green Berets who served with Livelsberger in Afghanistan said a key focus of their mission was to dismantle a network of Taliban-aligned forces who had been detonating car bombs in and around Kabul in an effort to destabilize the government.

The former colleague, who asked not to be identified, said their unit was often tasked with keeping a crucial highway clear of improvised explosive devices.

“They would just be set up all along that highway and it seemed like – especially towards the tail end of the deployment – a lot of guys were getting struck,” he said. “Luckily, our unit was never struck, but other units that colocated with us got struck by IEDs.”

The fellow soldier, who had kept in touch with Livelsberger since their deployment, said he didn’t know whether the explosion of the Cybertruck was in any way inspired by the kind of attacks so common a feature of the unit’s mission.

The military colleague said he was shocked by the incident in Las Vegas, especially given Livelsberger’s impressive credentials: a Green Beret with a background in communications, IT and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles. Livelsberger also steadily advanced his rank in the military to team sergeant, the second-in-command to the captain in the special-forces detachment – a position he held until recently, the fellow soldier said.

“You don’t have to be a genius to say, this guy’s going to have his pick of options for career field when he gets out,” the soldier said.

Livelsberger was an Army Special Forces operations master sergeant, a senior enlisted rank, according to four US officials. He was on active duty in Germany with the 10th Special Forces Group but was on leave at the time of the incident, three officials said.

Livelsberger’s relative, who said he hadn’t spoken with him in at least a decade but saw updates of his life through Facebook posts, remembered Livelsberger as an intelligent and popular student in high school.

“He played most of the usual sports and was often the captain of the team,” he said.

The relative said Livelsberger wanted to be in the special forces from a young age and was very successful in his career, which included several tours in Afghanistan.

“If he really wanted to hurt people, he could have hurt a lot of people,” he said. “But that is not in his nature, it was never in his nature.”

Livelsberger’s military colleague described him as a “bighearted” member of the unit who procured toys for Afghan kids and helped build a doghouse for a stray dog adopted as a pet on the base.

“Even in a place like Afghanistan, where one’s heart can be hardened by the nature of the mission, he never seemed to go down that path and always seemed to have his humanity very much in place,” the fellow soldier said.

His former military colleague told CNN he’d stayed in occasional touch with Livelsberger since the end of their deployment and even sent a gift when he became a father in April last year. Livelsberger’s second wife, who he married in 2022, sent the colleague a thank-you letter, he said.

She did not respond to requests for comment from CNN.

The fellow soldier said his friend had never indicated he was struggling – either during their deployment to Afghanistan, where they experienced combat, or afterward.

“It just makes me really sad to know that maybe something was going on with Matt and none of us knew,” he said, after briefly choking up. “We all would have obviously reached out and done anything we could to help him.”

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