Authorities say a Tesla Cybertruck was filled with gasoline and camp fuel containers, plus large firework mortars when it exploded Wednesday in front of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas.
The blast left one person dead and seven others injured, Fox News reported.
Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a Wednesday press conference investigators know who rented the Cybertruck, which was picked up in Colorado. The person’s identity has not been released.
McMahill said investigators traced the truck through Tesla charging stations. License plate readers in Las Vegas detected the vehicle at around 7:30 a.m.
McMahill said the truck traveled up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before stopping at the valet area of the Trump hotel.
About 15-20 seconds later, the vehicle exploded.
McMahill showed a video of the truck bed. The video revealed the bed was filled with gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars, but the exterior of the truck was still intact.
“The fact that this was a Cybertruck, really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out,” McMahill said. “In fact, if you look on that video, you’ll see that the front glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken by the blast.”
Tesla owner Elon Musk also commented on X, formerly Twitter, about how the blast went off.
“The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards,” he wrote.
“Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken,” Musk added.
Seven people received minor injuries and were treated at a nearby hospital.
The hotel guests were taken to another hotel as the investigation into continues.
Jeremy Schwartz, the FBI acting special agent in charge in Las Vegas, said he would not identify the suspect.
“Our number one goal is to ensure that we have proper identification of the subject involved in the incident,” he said.
Two U.S. defense officials told NBC News that the person who rented the Cybertruck was an active-duty member of the U.S. Army’s elite special forces unit “but it was not immediately clear whether that was the identity of the person who was killed inside the vehicle when it erupted into flames early Wednesday outside the Trump International Hotel or who may have been responsible for the explosion,” as the outlet reported. However, ABC News reported Livelsberger is the suspected driver of the Cybertruck.
Investigators are also looking into whether it was an act of terrorism.
The special agent said the joint terrorism task force is made up of law enforcement officials from the area.
“We’re not doing anything alone, and we wouldn’t do anything alone without our partners making sure that we’re all in lockstep,” Schwartz said. “We’ve learned from mistakes in the past, and we’re not going to do that again.”
