• A ‘supporter’ of Trump, Livelsberger completed five combat deployments to Afghanistan
• New Orleans attack suspect Jabbar faced family, money struggles

LAS VEGAS: Officials have positively identified the person found dead inside the Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas as a US Army soldier from Colorado, while the FBI said it was not yet clear if the blast was an act of terrorism.

The FBI said on Thursday it had so far found no definitive link between the New Year’s Day New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas later on the same day, which left seven people with minor injuries.

The Cybertruck driver was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, active-duty army soldier from Colorado Springs, and police said he acted alone.

Livelsberger killed himself with a gunshot to the mouth, police said, citing a report from the Clark County Coroner/Medical Examiner, according to a post on X by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Livelsberger was inside the vehicle when gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the truck bed exploded, police said. He shot himself just before explosives in the vehicle were detonated, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters. A handgun was found at his feet.

It was one of two semi-automatic handguns found in the Cybertruck, both of which were lawfully purchased by Livelsberger on Dec 30. Law enforcement also found military identification, a passport, an iPhone and credit cards in the truck.

Livelsberger was assigned to the Army Special Operations Command and was on approved leave at the time of his death, an army official said. The Army Special Operations Command would not comment on an ongoing investigation, a spokesperson said.

A US official told Reuters that Livelsberger had been awarded a Bronze Star for valor and an army commendation for valour, along with a Combat Infantryman Badge. He completed five combat deployments to Afghanistan, the official said.

Livelsberger was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump throughout the Republican’s political career, seeing him as someone who loves the military, his close relative told Reuters.

New Orleans suspect

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the Texas man accused of crashing a truck into New Year’s Day revelers in New Orleans, was an army veteran struggling to get past a recent divorce but who showed no signs of anger just weeks prior to the attack, his half-brother said.

Federal officials and local law enforcement in New Orleans say Jabbar had a flag of the militant Islamic State group on his truck and posted a series of videos to social media professing his allegiance to the deadly militant group shortly before barreling into the Bourbon Street crowd on Wednesday morning.

But what caused the 42-year-old Jabbar, a US citizen raised in Texas, to be radicalised remains unknown. Jabbar died at the scene in a shootout with police, officials said.

Abdur Rahim Jabbar, the suspect’s half-brother, said he had not noticed anything off-kilter when the two last spoke a few weeks ago, though he knew he was having trouble getting business ventures off the ground and was coming off his second divorce.

Jabbar had faced family and financial struggles in recent years, according to public records and interviews. His father suffered a stroke in 2023 and he was helping arrange for his care, Abdur Jabbar said. That came on the heels of his divorce, in September 2022, from his second wife, with whom he fathered one child, court records show.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2025