Las Vegas police said Thursday that a person presumed to be Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger had sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the Tesla Cybertruck in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, and that one of the handguns inside the vehicle was found at his feet.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the the information was learned through the coronor’s office, and that it was further complicating identification of the body found inside the Cybertruck, whom authorities believe is Livelsberger, but cannot say with a hundred-percent certainty yet.
Kenny Cooper, the assistant special agent in charge of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) San Francisco Field Division, said two semi-automatic handguns were recovered from the Tesla that have been successfully traced, and that both of the firearms were lawfully purchased by Livelsberger on December 30th.
McMahill also said he believes the gunshot wound was self-inflicted, “since he was the only person in the vehicle and it occurred immediately prior to the vehicle blowing up.”
However, he said he was not comfortable with calling it a “suicide mission” — only a “suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately thereafter.”
Livelsberger is a Green Beret who was at the time stationed in Germany, but had been in Colorado Springs, where 10th Group Special Forces is based.
So far, authorities have not identified a motive.
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According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, an ex-girlfriend of Livelsberger said he texted her in the days prior to the bombing, but gave no indication of anything amiss.
She told the paper he was an honorable man who loved his country and knew him as a conservative.
Cindy Helwig, a neighbor of Livelsberger and his current wife’s northeast Colorado Springs townhome complex, told the Gazette, “He seemed like a normal guy.”
“His wife is awesome, too. I never expected anything like that. I would never have thought it would have been him,” she said.