*

Person in Cybertruck killed, seven injured in blast

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FBI says search of Colorado Springs home related to

explosion

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Incident occurred hours after man drove truck into crowd

in New

Orleans

By Ronda Churchill, David Shepardson and Karen Brettell

LAS VEGAS, Jan 2 (Reuters) -

The FBI on Thursday said it had so far found no definitive

link between the New Year's Day

New Orleans truck attack

that killed 15 people and a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded

in Las Vegas, which killed the driver who officials have

reportedly identified as an active-duty U.S. Army soldier.

The Las Vegas explosion

outside of the Trump International Hotel left the sole

occupant of the truck dead and seven people with minor injuries,

the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a

statement.

Law enforcement officials identified the man inside the

Tesla Cybertruck as Matthew Livelsberger, an active-duty U.S.

Army soldier, the Associated Press and other media reported

Thursday.

The FBI has identified the person driving the Cybertruck but

was not ready to release that information, FBI special agent in

charge Jeremy Schwartz told reporters on Wednesday. The FBI did

not respond to a request for more information on Thursday.

Livelsberger was assigned to the U.S. Army Special

Operations Command and was on approved leave at the time of his

death, a U.S. Army official said. The U.S. Army Special

Operations Command would not comment on an ongoing

investigation, a spokesperson said.

Livelsberger had been on active duty from January 2006 to

March 2011 and later served in the National Guard and Army

Reserve before re-entering active duty in December 2012 as a

U.S. Army Special Operations Soldier, according to a U.S. Army

official.

Livelsberger does not appear to have a criminal record. He

has been linked to addresses in Colorado Springs since 2013.

Authorities on Wednesday said that the Tesla Cybertruck was

rented out of Colorado. FOX21 in Colorado reported a law

enforcement presence at a town home complex in a Colorado

Springs neighborhood late Wednesday night.

The FBI's Denver office on Thursday said that a search of a

residential address in Colorado Springs by federal and local

authorities is related to the Las Vegas explosion.

Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the Las Vegas

hotel showed the vehicle exploding and flames pouring out of it,

as it sat outside the hotel at around 8:40 a.m. local time (1640

GMT) Wednesday.

A Trump spokesman did not return a request for comment

Thursday on the Cybertruck incident. Eric Trump praised Las

Vegas fire and law enforcement officials on Wednesday for their

quick action on the explosion.

'LOTS OF QUESTIONS'

The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the Trump

Organization, the company of President-elect Donald Trump, who

will return to the White House on Jan. 20. Tesla CEO

Elon Musk was a key backer of Trump in his 2024 presidential

campaign and is also an adviser to the incoming president.

"Obviously a Cybertruck, the Trump hotel - there's lots of

questions that we have to answer," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police

Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.

Police said the truck arrived in Las Vegas at around 7:30

a.m. and drove through the city's hotel- and casino-lined Strip

until it reached the Trump hotel, where it stopped in the valet

area. The Trump hotel was evacuated after the explosion and most

of its visitors were moved to another hotel.

"Detectives found gasoline canisters and large firework

mortars in the bed of the truck," a police statement said.

Schwartz, the FBI special agent in charge, said it was not

yet clear whether the blast was an act of terrorism.

Musk, in a post on X, said, "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."

Both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans

attack had been rented through car-sharing service Turo,

McMahill said.

A Turo spokesperson said the company did not believe either

of the renters of the vehicles involved in the Las Vegas and New

Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have

identified them as a security threat.