The Tesla Cybertruck bomber claimed that the explosion he set off outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel was not terrorism but rather a mind cleansing.
Matthew Livelsberger, 37, who shot himself inside the Cybertruck and then detonated it on Wednesday, had two notes in his burned cell phone found in the vehicle that hint at his motive.
‘This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call,’ wrote Livelsberger in the notes application, according to police on Friday.
‘Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives.’
Livelsberger, who was an active member of the US Army’s elite Special Forces, also addressed the timing of this stunt.
‘Why did I personally do it now? I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took,’ he wrote.
The former Green Beret acted alone and his actions were driven by PTSD and other personal anguish, the FBI said on Friday afternoon.
‘Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide, involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who is struggling with PTSD and other issues,’ stated Spencer Evans, a special agent overseeing the FBI’s Las Vegas division.
The explosion in the valet section of Trump International Hotel injured seven bystanders. Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk were both at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago estate New Year’s Eve party at the time of the incident.
Authorities have said there was no connection between the Cybertruck incident and an attack in New Orleans hours earlier in which a driver flying an ISIS flag rammed into a crowd and killed 15 people.
Another letter by Livelsberger had ‘a variety of other grievances and issues, some political, some personal, a variety of other things which we will do our best to release very quickly’, said Las Vegas Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren.
And an email claming to be from Livelsberger and sent to retired US Army intelligence officer Sam Shoemate just before the explosion stated that the mystery drones flying over New Jersey and other parts of the east coast recently are Chinese weapons. It said that the drones are the ‘most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed’.
Earlier, the FBI revealed that Livelsberger split up with his wife days before the explosion, and around the same time started texting his ex-girlfriends.
‘I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the s**t,’ Livelsberger apparently texted Alicia Arritt, who dated him from 2018 to 2021. ‘I feel like Batman or halo.’
Arritt said she was not sure why Livelsberger texted her.
Authorities are still looking through data in Livelsberger’s phone and are trying to access another phone and a laptop.
‘We are barely scratching the surface,’ stated Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill.
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