"Not a terrorist attack, it was a wake-up call", says soldier who blew up Cybertruck at Trump Hotel in a note

Before and after Cybertruck explosion outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. (Pic/ AP and AFP)

An Army soldier who fatally shot himself in a Tesla Cybertruck moments before it blew up outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas left notes saying the New Year's Day explosion was a stunt serving as a "wake-up call" for the country's ills, said investigators on Friday, Associated Press (AP) reported.

Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, further wrote in notes he left on his cellphone that he needed to "cleanse" his mind "of the brothers I've lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took." Livelsberger served in the Army since 2006 and was deployed twice to Afghanistan, AP reported.

"This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake-up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives," Livelsberger said in one letter found by authorities which was released on Friday.

Seven individuals sustained minor injuries due to the explosion but virtually no damage to the Trump International Hotel. Authorities claimed that Livelsberger acted alone, AP cited.

The army man's letters covered a range of topics which included political grievances, societal problems and both domestic and international issues, including the ongoing war in Ukraine. He said in one letter that the U.S. was "terminally ill and headed toward collapse."

Meanwhile, Tesla's engineers helped investigators extract data from the Cybertruck, including Livelsberger's path between charging stations from Colorado through New Mexico and Arizona and on to Las Vegas, according to Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren, AP reported.

"We still have a large volume of data to go through," Koren said on Friday. "There's thousands if not millions of videos and photos and documents and web history and all of those things that need to be analyzed."

The new details came up as investigators were still trying to figure out whether Livelsberger sought to make a political point with the Tesla and the hotel bearing the president-elect's name.

Law enforcement sources stated that Livelsberger had no animosity towards President-elect Donald Trump. He wrote in one of his notes that the nation needed to "rally around" Trump and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, AP reported.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has recently become a member of Trump's inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the day of the explosion. Both had attended Trump's New Year's Eve party at his South Florida estate.

"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 was struggling with PTSD and other issues," Spencer Evans, the FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas, said Friday.

Livelsberger died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Investigators have not yet explained how he shot himself inside the Cybertruck while simultaneously igniting fireworks and camp fuel packed inside, which caused the explosion, AP reported.

Among the charred items found inside the Tesla, were a handgun at Livelsberger's feet, another firearm, fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch. Authorities claim that both guns were purchased legally.

Earlier, Livelsberger had confided to Alicia Arritt, his former girlfriend who had served as an Army nurse, about facing significant pain and exhaustion, which she attributed to traumatic brain injury, AP cited.

He opened up to Arritt (39), whom he met and began dating in Colorado back in 2018, about exhaustion, pain that kept him up at night, and reliving violence from his deployment in Afghanistan, as per Arritt.

"My life has been a personal hell for the last year," he told Arritt in text messages sent during their early days of dating that she shared with AP.

The Green Berets are known to be highly trained U.S. Army special forces who specialise in guerrilla warfare and unconventional fighting tactics.

According to the Army, Livelsberger rose through the ranks and was deployed twice to Afghanistan and served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo. He recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died.

He had received five Bronze Stars, including one with a valour device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valour.

Authorities searched a townhouse in Livelsberger's hometown of Colorado Springs on Thursday as part of the investigation. Neighbours said the man who lived there had a wife and a baby.

As per AP, across-the-street neighbour Cindy Helwig claimed that she last saw him when he asked to borrow a tool to fix an SUV. "He was a normal guy," she said.

The explosion came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans' famed French Quarter early on New Year's Day, killing at least 14 individuals before being shot to death by police, AP reported.

The FBI says they believe that Jabbar acted alone and that it is being investigated as a terrorist attack.

(With inputs from AP)