The suspect in the New Year’s Day Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas was an active-duty highly trained Special Operations soldier, according to multiple reports.
The driver who rented the Tesla has been named as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
He was said to be married to a social worker and on leave from duty in Germany at the time of the attack. His wife had not heard from him for several days, reported CBS News.
As the FBI and police investigators try to piece together the 8:40 a.m. Wednesday attack that left the driver dead and seven people injured outside the Trump International Hotel, CNN’s John Miller said the man who rented the Cybertruck had 19 years plus of military service and was in Special Forces command.
Three U.S. officials told the Associated Press that Livelsberger spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a North Carolina Army base that is home to Army special forces command.
The futuristic electric truck exploded about 15 seconds after pulling up at the hotel parking valet.
Miller did not name the suspect but he reported new details about his alleged background.
“He is highly trained in communications and electronic measures for bomb detections, and intelligence operations,” said Miller, the network’s Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst and a former Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism at the New York Police Department.
“He would be one of the most sophisticated in terms of training people in the Green Berets,” added Miller.
He said investigators could not be certain the person who rented the vehicle was the same as the one who died in the explosion because the body was so badly burned that identification was difficult.
Miller added that police had not eliminated the possibility that the Las Vegas bomb was linked to the truck massacre in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve when ISIS supporter Shamsud Din-Jabbar killed 15 people and injured dozens more.
But Miller added: “If you look at New Orleans where he does five recordings apparently in the dark as he is driving apparently to Louisiana from Texas, he’s talking about family problems, financial problems, his life coming apart at the seams and that he’s joined ISIS and that’s why he’s doing this. If you look at Las Vegas, so far it appears that they don’t have communications or clear motive from the person who’s in that truck.”
He said the Cybertruck driver took an initial pass in front of the hotel and then returned later to detonate the explosives.
“Is he saying it’s 7 something in the morning and there’s not a lot of people here, I’m going to come back in an hour and see if there’s a bigger crowd. Or is he doing his reconnaissance as a military operator would, which is, who stops you where, where am I going to place this, so the Elon Musk vehicle is going to be right under the Trump sign.
“We don’t know the symbolism that they were going for in this attack was, but they are looking at all of that,” he added.
A LinkedIn profile that appears to match the description of the suspect says he was a full-time member of the military for 19 years and one month and most recently worked as a Remote and Autonomous Systems Manager. He previously worked as a Special Forces Operations manager and Team Sergeant and as a Special Forces Intelligence and Operations Specialist.
The profile says he was awarded the Department of State Meritorious Award in December 2016 “for interagency contributions that resulted in increased interoperability and efficiency while serving as the Operations Sergeant at Special Operations Command Forward- Central Asian States” for the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan.
