Soldier’s bomb in Tesla outside Trump hotel could have been more lethal

If 37-year-old Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a career Special Forces master sergeant, had wanted to cause far more harm, his colleagues suggested, he likely had the skill and experience to do it.

A career Army Special Forces master sergeant with years of experience detonated a homemade bomb packed into a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, yet the blast left the glass doors a few feet away and the chandeliers just above the windshield intact. And while seven bystanders suffered injuries, the only person who died was the soldier himself in the truck.

The lack of destruction and the low death toll were a cause for relief for authorities and others reeling from the New Orleans attacks a few hours earlier. But they also prompted a lot of head-scratching, by law enforcement officials and by Special Forces soldiers who served with the man, 37-year-old Matthew Alan Livelsberger. If he had wanted to cause far more harm, his colleagues suggested, he likely had the skill and experience to do it.

Livelsberger, who was known as Berg to other Green Berets, spent nearly 20 years in Special Forces, first as a communications specialist, then as an intelligence specialist, and finally as the senior enlisted leader in an operational detachment, also known as an A-Team.

For many of those years, he was assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Stuttgart, Germany. He deployed at least six times, including three tours in Afghanistan, and was decorated by the Army for valor.

While he never held a formal explosives position, all members of A-Teams get explosives training, and many also learn to build improvised explosives, several Green Berets said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

One Green Beret who went on a mission in Afghanistan in 2019 with Livelsberger said that he was experienced and capable, and made an impression because the other Green Berets all carried standard assault rifles, while he carried a rapid-fire grenade launcher.

Those kinds of Green Berets — senior leaders with extensive combat experience — often have a sophisticated understanding of explosives and how bombs work, the Green Beret said of Livelsberger.

That has left some of the people who knew him wondering what was behind the explosion. There appeared to be no effort to pack the bomb with shrapnel, or to create homemade explosives that would pack more of a punch. “Everyone I’ve spoken to is wondering whether he even intended to cause damage,” the Green Beret said.

On Thursday, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that investigators had determined that Livelsberger shot himself inside the car, as it was engulfed in flames, and that he was burned beyond recognition.

But what led him to build a makeshift car bomb and to take his own life is the focus of the investigation by local and federal agencies.

“The motivation at this point is unknown,” the FBI’s special agent in charge in Las Vegas, Spencer Evans, said at a news conference Thursday. “It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle. But we don’t have information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests it was because of this particular ideology or that, you know, any of the reasoning behind it.”

Law enforcement authorities said they had not uncovered any connections to any terrorist organizations, or to the attack that took place in New Orleans just a few hours before. But they also appeared puzzled by the circumstances of the explosion and said they had more to do to try to resolve the many questions.

Officials said the truck had been packed with off-the-shelf ingredients, including fireworks, small canisters of propane and exploding targets used in shooting. Three weapons were found in the truck: an assault rifle and two pistols, including a .50 caliber Desert Eagle.

The coroner for Clark County, Nevada, said Thursday that Livelsberger died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound immediately before the blast.

In private chat groups involving hundreds of Green Berets on Thursday, several discussed how their training could have easily allowed someone to cause catastrophic damage, and wondered whether Livelsberger sought mainly to draw attention for some unknown reason.

Special Agent Kenneth R. Cooper of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said that investigators were struck by the composition of the bomb. “The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience.”

Fran Racioppi, a former 10th Special Forces officer who now hosts a podcast focused on Green Berets, said it was possible that the bombing was a botched act of terrorism. But he said the larger concern among many Special Forces veterans was that Livelsberger may have had serious, but unrecognized, mental health problems.

Those problems, he said, are widespread among career Special Operations soldiers, who by the nature of their work, deploy more, experience more combat and are at higher risk of brain injuries from weapons blasts and parachute jumps.

“Our community faces so many issues, and guys try to hide it — especially when they are still active duty,” he said. “Whatever the motive, I think we first need to look at his mental health.”