A Green Beret who drove a Tesla Cybertruck loaded with explosives to Las Vegas and detonated its payload at the Trump International Hotel left a suicide note saying the spectacle was intended to be a “wake-up call” for the United States and not an act of terrorism . according to the authorities.
“This was not a terrorist attack,” wrote Matthew Livelsberger, who police say fatally shot himself before Wednesday's explosion. “It was a wake-up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacle and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives?
At a news conference Friday in Las Vegas, local and federal law enforcement officials released parts of a memo and letters that suggested the Army master sergeant and Afghanistan war veteran was motivated in part by his experiences in combat, as well as for his vision of the political events that were developing. in the United States.
“Why did I personally do it now? “I needed to clear my mind of the brothers I lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took,” the 37-year-old wrote.
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Authorities have not released the soldier's full writings recovered on a cellphone found inside the destroyed vehicle.
“These are just excerpts,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Deputy Sheriff Dori Koren.
“It offers additional information that ranges across the spectrum in terms of political grievances, issues about conflicts elsewhere – not here -, internal issues, social issues… including also personal challenges,” Koren said.
The New Year's Day explosion came hours after a terrorist attack in New Orleans, where an Army veteran drove another truck down a busy street, killing 14 people and injuring about 30 more.
Since both attacks appeared to be ideologically motivated, authorities initially wondered whether the two events could be related. Investigators have since determined that the New Orleans shooter acted alone.
“To be clear, there is no evidence that these two events are connected,” said Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas division. “The only thing we have connecting them are incidental similarities, which we believe are coincidences.”
Those coincidences included the fact that both men rented vehicles through the car-sharing app Turo, served in the military and stayed in Airbnb rentals.
“We have not identified any telephone or email communications between the subjects, any information to suggest that they knew each other, that they ever served in the same unit, that they were ever assigned to the same location at the same time and that they had any interaction,” Evans saying.
Among other excerpts from writings published Friday were passages in which Livelsberger expressed frustration with the direction of the nation.
“Fellow military members, veterans and all Americans. TIME TO WAKE UP! “We are being led by weak and irresponsible leaders who only serve to enrich themselves.”
He also wrote that America was the best country “that ever existed! But right now we have a terminal illness and we are heading towards collapse.”
Livelsberger served as a Green Beret sergeant major in the Army. He spent most of his time at Ft. Carson in Colorado and Germany, according to authorities. He was on approved leave from Germany at the time of his death.
On his Facebook profile, Livelsberger once criticized the withdrawal of US military forces from Afghanistan in 2021. He called it “the biggest foreign policy failure in US history.”
At Friday's news conference, authorities emphasized that their investigation into Livelsberger continues and that their view of the incident could change as they still had to examine more of the dead man's writings as well as other information.
“We have terrabytes of data that we need to analyze,” Evans said.
However, after conducting numerous interviews with family, friends and military colleagues, investigators concluded that Livelsberger had no animosity toward Trump.
“Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a highly decorated combat veteran who is battling post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues,” Evans said.
Times staff writers Summer Lin, Hannah Fry, Richard Winton and Terry Castleman contributed to this report.
