A Cybertruck Explosion Outside of a Las Vegas Hotel: A Witness’s Report to the FBI and the Las Vegas Detector for Terrorism
There appeared to be an explosion outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday. A video was shared on X that shows a Cybertruck engulfed in flames just outside the lobby of a hotel, and the person who captured it said it crackled up.
“I and my husband were literally standing where the luggage is in the footage. I was just watching it lift up and drop like a bus, as it boomed. It first looked like fireworks or something I panicked and thought our life could be in danger.
Several people on X said they saw an explosion and caught videos of the smoke rising. Stephen Felando claimed the windows shook violently on the 53rd floor of the building; Max Radford claimed there were multiple explosions.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and Clark County Fire Department officials told a news conference that a person died inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck and they were working to get the body out. Many people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, and seven of them had minor injuries.
Police said the Cybertruck was rented in Colorado. Authorities were able to trace the vehicle through Tesla charging stations to see that it arrived in Las Vegas about an hour before the explosion. The incident was called isolated by authorities.
On Wednesday, Las Vegas police said that they pulled gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars from the back of the Cybertruck. The explosion, which was caught on video, also injured seven people.
Musk had earlier posted on the platform that the whole senior team of the company had been looking into the matter after they attended a party at the Mar-a-Lago resort. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”
A person with knowledge of the matter said that law enforcement officials had not ruled out terrorism as a motive. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation.
“I know you have a lot of questions,” Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBI’s Las Vegas office, told reporters. “We don’t have a lot of answers.”
The Dec. 17 New Year Explosion that killed 14 People in New Orleans: Master Sergeant Matthew Livelsberger and the Cybertuck
President Joe Biden was briefed on the explosion. The truck explosion came hours after a driver rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 10 people before being shot to death by police.
“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,” Bruce said.
Authorities have identified the driver of the Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump hotel in Las Vegas as 37-year-old Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger is a man. In a news briefing Thursday afternoon, police say they still don’t have 100 percent confirmation because he was “burned beyond recognition” in the Jan. 1 blast. They’re awaiting DNA tests to confirm his identity.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Livelsberger had been shot in the head before the Cybertuck exploded.
Livelsberger was an active member of the U.S. Army. Officials noted similarities with 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man who drove a pickup truck onto the sidewalk in New Orleans, killing at least 15 and injuring dozens more on New Year’s Day. McMahill said both men served at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, though there’s no indication they served in the same unit. Both of them used the CarRentals app Turo to rent the cars used in the attacks. The details on additional parallels are not known. Intelligence officials are trying to figure out if there is a connection between the two incidents.
A source familiar with Livelsberger’s background who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter tells NPR’s Tom Bowman that Livelsberger was deployed five times to Afghanistan on combat missions. He had not been deployed over the course of a year.
New Orleans Truck Attack: An FBI Now Says The Suspect Assisted by a Criminal Stuediment Exactly Two Hours After the Explosion
Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent of the FBI in Las Vegas, said that the agency was working to learn more about the explosion. The FBI was trying to figure out if the explosion was an act of terrorism.
Chris Raia, deputy assistant director with the FBI’s counterterrorism division, told reporters at a press conference that they don’t think anyone else is involved in the attack.
Raia said investigators are combing through five electronic devices — three cellphones and two laptops — and there is “nothing to indicate through call records, through anything on those devices, through interviews, through anything in our systems that he was aided in this attack by anyone.”
On Wednesday, the FBI said it was likely that someone else did not act alone and they were trying to find more information that could lead to more suspects.
Police have said that around 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Jabbar veered around a police vehicle blocking the intersection of Canal and Bourbon streets, speeding onto the sidewalk before steering back onto Bourbon. He continued down Bourbon Street for nearly three blocks, crossing Iberville Street, Bienville Street and then crashing just before Conti Street. Jabbar then exited the pickup and fired at police officers, injuring two. The injured officers are in stable condition, according to the police.
Bourbon Street, which has been closed as authorities investigate, has been cleaned overnight and was reopened to pedestrians on Thursday. Fourteen yellow roses have been placed on the sidewalk near Canal Street as a makeshift memorial for each of those killed in the speeding rampage.
Source: FBI now says the suspect in the deadly New Orleans truck attack acted alone
The New Orleans Attack and the Cybertruck Explosion – A Wake-up Call for James A. Jabbar, a U.S. Citizen
The Sugar Bowl, a nationally televised game that is part of the college football playoffs, was slated to take place in New Orleans on Wednesday night but was postponed until Thursday afternoon.
The governor told reporters that there were security measures in place for the game and that additional assets were deployed.
“I don’t like to give specifics because I don’t like to tell the enemy what we got,” he said. “But I can tell you we’re in better shape than we were before,” Landry said. He also said there is “an unprecedented amount of law enforcement resources that are being utilized” to finalize the investigation.
Raia said that there was no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and a Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas, because the suspect was killed inside the vehicle.
Jabbar, who was a U.S. citizen, was honorably discharged from the Army, according to the FBI. From March 2007 to January 2015, he served as a Human Resource Specialist and Information Technology Specialist in the Army Reserve, then as an IT Specialist from July 2020 to July 2020. He served in Afghanistan for about 11 months after he was deployed. He left the service with the rank of staff sergeant.
The FBI completed the search of Jabbar’s home in Houston Thursday morning and said in a post on social media that there is “no threat to residents” in the area. A neighbor described the suspect as quiet and their interactions normal, according to The Texas Newsroom.