Master Sgt. Matthew Alan Livelsberger, the soldier who committed suicide inside a Tesla that exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday, appears to have struggled with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), authorities said Friday.
Livelsberger’s death made national news and sparked speculation that the incident may have been connected to the New Year’s terror attack in New Orleans, but police said at a Friday news conference that they discovered notes on Livelsberger’s burnt phone that shed light into what he was thinking in advance of his death. In the notes, Livelsberger wrote that he meant for his death to be a “wake-up call” for an America he considered to be in decline, and he also felt the need to cleanse himself of guilt he held internally.
“Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took,” Livelsberger wrote, according to investigators.
“This was not a terrorist attack,” said another one of the notes. “It was a wake-up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives?”
Livelsberger said he believed the U.S. to be “headed toward collapse” and expressed his view that the country is “being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves,” police said. Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge for the FBI’s Las Vegas field office, said that Livelsberger’s death in the vehicle “ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who is struggling with PTSD and other issues.”
Additionally, authorities said they are still working to access electronic devices that were left in the vehicle, adding that there may still be important information on those devices they have not yet been able to obtain and review.
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