It was an awful way to start a new year: two deadly truck attacks, one in New Orleans and one in Las Vegas. The FBI and local police are still trying to piece together a motive for the Vegas truck bomb and to determine if the attack was related to the deadly truck attack in New Orleans just hours earlier.
Authorities know the identity of both suspects, but the motive in Las Vegas is still unclear. At 8:20 a.m., Matthew Livelsberger – an active-duty Army Green Beret – drove a rented Tesla Cybertruck up to the valet station at the Trump International Hotel. About 20 seconds later, the vehicle exploded.
Livelsberger did not survive the blast; numerous news outlets reported this afternoon that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot before the explosion.
Investigation has revealed the back of the Cybertruck was packed with camp fuel canisters and firework mortars. Former Las Vegas Police Lieutenant Randy Sutton told American Family Radio on Thursday that the fact that it was a Tesla truck undoubtably saved lives.
"The way he packed the vehicle with explosives, this bomber didn't realize that the truck … was designed in such a way that it didn't blow up the way that he thought it would. It actually changed the blast much more than if it had been a regular pickup truck," Sutton explained.
Video footage shows that the blast went straight up, not even breaking the glass doors only a few feet from the truck.
Sutton says a motive has not been released, but he's convinced Livelsberger wanted to send a message. "The symbolism, of course – here we have Tesla, Elon Musk's company, and the Trump Hotel. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that there's a message here."
The other unknown at this point is if the two New Year's Day attacks were related. The New Orleans driver was displaying an ISIS flag on his truck and police are certain it was an Islamic terrorist attack. Authorities in Las Vegas are still piecing the facts together, but Sutton contends there are clues.
"There is a strong nexus in the fact that both the New Orleans killer's vehicle and the Trump Hotel bomber's vehicle were rented by individuals by the same rental app," he stated. News reports say both vehicles were rented using Turo, a peer-to-peer car sharing platform.
Sutton, with more than 30 years in law enforcement, is founder and board chair of The Wounded Blue, a nonprofit that assists and advocates on behalf of injured and disabled law enforcement officers.
Terrorist acts, for sure
Bob Maginnis, senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council, isn't surprised the two incidents on New Year's Day are being investigated as acts of terrorism. He has a similar take to Sutton on the possible symbolism of the Las Vegas incident.
"I suspect, don't know, that it has more to do with the politics of trying to go after Elon Musk and Donald Trump in the same episode," he tells AFN. "Why this guy would do that, don't know. I think time will tell."
As for the New Orleans attack, Maginnis says it appears the ISIS influence played a role in the terrorist's actions.
"[And it] shouldn't surprise us that we have people who are spun up and radicalized inside this country," he offers. "We've had examples of that within the [military] services, but elsewhere as well for some time. And unfortunately, I think to a certain degree, we've taken our eyes off the terrorist threat prematurely."
The driver of the truck in New Orleans has been identified as a former U.S. Army sergeant who had posted videos so social media hours before the carnage saying he was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group.
"There's much more to be said about each of these cases in the background," Maginnis concludes. "They're both suspicious, and I'm sure that the military is going to cooperate and provide as much information as we possibly can."
Editor's note: Comments from Bob Maginnis were added after article was originally posted.
