Matthew Livelsberger could have ‘destroyed’ the hotel if he wanted to, says his uncle

Cybertruck attack suspect Matthew Livelsberger may have inflicted serious damage on donald trumpfrom the Las Vegas hotel if he had “really wanted to hurt others,” his uncle has said.

Dean Livelsberger told Independent that his nephew was “very patriotic,” loved Trump and was a “super soldier” who could have “designed a bomb that would have destroyed half of that hotel.”

news week He reached out to the FBI and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for comment Friday via email outside of regular business hours.

Why is it important

Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Special Forces soldier, was behind the Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, local Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Thursday. Livelsberger was the only fatality and had suffered a gunshot wound to the head before the bomb was ignited. The Sheriff said the body itself was burned “almost unrecognizable” and authorities still do not have “100 percent” confirmation that it is Livelsberger. seven people He suffered minor injuries.

What to know

Just hours before the Las Vegas explosion, 15 people died in a Ram attack in New Orleans carried out by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an army veteran who had pledged support for the Islamic State group.

Authorities continue to investigate whether there was any connection between the New Orleans attack and the Las Vegas explosion, although on Thursday the FBI said it had found “no definitive link” between the two incidents.

Dean Livelsberger’s comments raise new questions about why Matthew Livelsberger, an active-duty Special Forces soldier with 19 years of military experience, might have carried out the attack and why he used such a crude weapon.

Livelsberger, whose military ID card and passport were recovered from the burned Cybertruck, had recently had a child with his new partner.

Dean Livelsberger said his nephew “could have made a bomb that would have destroyed half of that hotel if he really wanted to hurt others,” instead of the explosives used, which authorities said included a combination of gas canisters and large fires. artificial.

The uncle continued, “Think about Oklahoma City. McVeigh was just a normal soldier. Not a Level 1 operator like Matt.” In April 1995, 168 people were killed in a truck bombing carried out by anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh.

Dean Livelsberger said his nephew divorced his first wife and recently had a child with another woman. In September she posted a photo of herself with the baby in her arms on Facebook. He also said that photos Matthew Livelsberger had posted on social media while stationed in Germany, including one of him proposing to his current partner, had recently “disappeared.”

He concluded: “Matt was not estranged from the family at all. Everyone thought a lot of Matt.”

What people say

Dean Livelsberger, to the Independent: “Matt was a very skilled warrior and could make (if it were him and if he did this) he could have made a more sophisticated explosive than using propane tanks and camping fuel. He was what you could call a “super soldier.” If you ever read about the things he received and the experience he had, some of them don’t make sense, when he had the skills and ability to do something more, shall we say, ‘efficient’. “His abilities were enormous from what he had been taught in the army.”

spencer evans, FBI special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office said: “Obviously in these types of events we are concerned about determining what the motive was. We understand that is at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts, so we are investigating exactly what the motivation is and it remains our number one priority.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in X (previously Twitter): “The evil idiots chose the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. The Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed it upwards.

What happens next?

Police continue to investigate the film behind the Las Vegas explosion, as well as any possible connection to the New Orleans attack.

On January 20, Trump will take office as president for the second time and has already named tesla had Elon Musk as co-director of the Recently created Department of Government Efficiency.