A man who died in the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks and fuel canisters outside president-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel on Wednesday was a US soldier, officials said.
Two law enforcement officials identified the man inside the futuristic-looking pick-up truck as Matthew Livelsberger.
They said Mr Livelsberger, who was the sole occupant of the truck, was an active-duty army member who spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive centre in North Carolina that is home to special forces command.
Seven people sustained minor injuries in the incident, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement.
New Orleans truck attack: Celebration followed by terror in the French Quarter
I asked Bitchy Bitchy how he felt about his nickname. He gave me a bitchy look...
Drugs, scams and sin: Myanmar’s war has made it the global crime capital
‘It doesn’t seem real’: Residents of Jimmy Carter’s hometown celebrate a life well lived
The explosion came hours after a driver, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’s famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people before being shot to death by police.
Jabbar, a US army veteran, also spent time at Fort Bragg but one official said no overlap had so far been identified in their assignments there.
Las Vegas police department sheriff Kevin McMahill said video at Tesla charging stations provided by chief executive Elon Musk helped authorities track the vehicle’s journey. It arrived in Las Vegas at about 7.30am local time, and was then drived about an hour later into the valet area of the Trump International Hotel, where it sat for 15 to 20 seconds before the explosion occurred.
Video presented at an afternoon news conference showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices in the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.
Mr Musk said on Wednesday afternoon on his social media platform X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself”.
Mr Musk has recently become a member of Mr Trump’s inner circle. Neither Mr Trump nor Mr Musk were in Las Vegas early on Wednesday. Both had attended Mr Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at the president-elect’s estate in south Florida.
Mr Trump has named Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, to co-lead a new effort to find ways to cut the US government’s size and spending.
“This is a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with president-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump Tower,” Mr McMahill said when reporters asked about possible political connections. “So there’s obviously things to be concerned about and it’s something we continue to look at.”
Witness Ana Bruce, who was visiting from Brazil, said she heard three explosions. “The first one where we saw the fire, the second one, I guess, was the battery or something like that, and the third was the big one that smoked the entire area and was the moment when everyone was told to evacuate and stay away,” Ms Bruce said.
Her travel companion, Alcides Antunes, showed video he took of flames lapping the sides of the silver-coloured vehicle.
The 64-storey hotel is just off the Las Vegas Strip and across the street from the Fashion Show Las Vegas shopping mall.
Eric Trump, a son of the president-elect and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted about the fire on X. He praised the fire department and local law enforcement “for their swift response and professionalism”.
“We are absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened in New Orleans as well as other attacks that have been occurring around the world,” Mr McMahill said. “We aren’t ruling anything out.” – AP