Las Vegas, United States - January 02, 2025 01/02/2025 12:00 pm (America/Los_Vegas) Las Vegas – Transcript: All right. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Kevin McMahill. I'm the sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and we are collectively here this morning to give you an update on the cybertruck explosion at the Trump Hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard yesterday. Um, our work never stopped. Um, as many of you went to sleep last night and I just want to give you an update on a lot of what it is that we found through the processing of the cybertruck. This is a joint investigation involving the FBI, the A.T. F. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and these folks worked through the night and found a lot of stuff that is very useful for this investigation. As you look at this cybertruck here, we had to transport this down to our fleet services so that we could really get through this thing. And I remind you that the subject inside, um, wasn't able to be removed for a very long period of time because he was burnt beyond recognition. And so as we continue to move through this, I'm gonna talk a little bit about his identity and what we believe. But I would like to highlight a couple of things that the teams found inside of the cyber truck that are useful to the investigation. And that first and foremost is a military identification. We also found a passport. We found a Desert Eagle 50 caliber semi-automatic pistol. And if you'll notice on a lot of these guns that we're gonna talk about here, they're almost just burnt beyond recognition as well. Um, there's an SLR model B 30 semi-automatic firearm, number of fireworks that were still in the vehicle that had to be removed. Notably, we found an iPhone and a smartwatch and then several credit cards were also in the name of our subject. Our subject, um, is 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger. He's of Colorado Springs, Colorado, born July 22nd of 1987. Now, as you'll see here on a picture of his driver's license. Let's see. Um, the question really still remains for me, and I know that there's a lot of you folks in the media that are identifying this person as a person in our vehicle. Um, as I mentioned to you already, his body is burnt beyond recognition, and I do still not have confirmation 100% that that is the individual that was inside of our vehicle. And so as I'm calling it now, the subject or person of interest, I will not come back until I have the confirmation through DNA or medical records that this is indeed, in fact, the subject inside of the vehicle. Now, further complicating this identification of this individual, we also discovered through the coroner's office that the individual had sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle. What one of the handguns was found at his feet inside of the vehicle. Um, obviously in how we're trying to identify him and I'm feeling comfortable to give you this information is a tremendous amount of substantial evidence to include he rented the Toro vehicle. Um, there are two tattoos, one of which was on the stomach and one of which is on the arm that we can see bits and pieces of it as in comparison to what it is that we now know he had on his body that has given us a lot of confidence that this is, in fact, the same person as well as which the clearly obvious, which is the credit cards, the military identification, the passport. And then furthermore, as you'll see here in just a very short period of time, we tracked his movements from Colorado to Las Vegas and in a number of the photographs that we were able to determine he was the individual that was driving the vehicle. And also, I'd like to iterate this point to you. We still have only ever seen him in this vehicle and we're not aware of any other subjects involved in this particular case. Now I would like to acknowledge a couple of things because I know what's going on in the social media world. And there are a number of things in this case that are similar to the attack in New Orleans. We do know that our subject here served in the military. In fact, he's a current member of the military. Both of the subjects served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. What we do know about that is it's a very large military base and we have no record that they served in the same unit or even at the same years at Fort Bragg, something that continues to remain under investigation. I also know that they both served in Afghanistan in 2009. Um, we don't have any evidence that they were in the same province in Afghanistan, the same location or the same unit. Again, something else that remains under investigation. Um, and we also know, of course, that they both used the rental company Toro to rent their vehicles. As far as his military background, it's been confirmed by D. O. D. that he was indeed in the United States Army. He was also a Green Beret operations sergeant who spent most of his time at Fort Carson, Colorado and in Germany. He was it on approved leave from Germany where he was serving with the 10th Special Forces Group. He was also previously in the National Guard and the Army Reserve. Like to point out to you that through exceptional joint investigative effort, we've gotten to a place where we believe we can show you his route to Las Vegas from Colorado. Carlos will put up the map there for you. We know that he rented the cybertruck in Denver on December 28th. We tracked his movements through the Tesla charging stations to Monument Colorado on December 30th. On the 31st of December, the truck was charged in Trinidad, Colorado, Las Vegas, New Mexico and Albuquerque and Gallup, New Mexico. On January 1st, the truck was charged in Holbrook Flagstaff and Kingman, Arizona. We last tracked the truck in Kingman at 0533 yesterday morning. The truck was first spotted in Las Vegas at 7:29 a.m. yesterday, and Carlos will pull up a picture of the truck pulling onto Fashion Show Drive here. And that picture was observed at about 7:34 a.m. We know that he pulled into the Trump valet. I believe we have a video of that. You can see the cybertruck highlighted there. So through extensive surveillance video, we were able to track him leaving there and we know that he went to several different places along Las Vegas Boulevard and he spent some time in a parking lot of a business near Flamingo in Las Vegas Boulevard. We didn't have a video of the truck pulling back onto Las Vegas Boulevard from the sands. See that there goes that's north on the boulevard from Sands at 8:39 where he then immediately heads to the Trump Hotel, pulls into the valet area. And as of course you all know, the explosion occurs within 17 seconds of his arrival at the valet. There's some additional investigative updates that are going to be provided to you by a couple of the other speakers here, the first of which will be our special agent in charge of the FBI local office, Spencer Evans. Spencer. Good morning. My name is Spencer Evans. I'm the special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas division. So the sheriff mentioned we've been working through the night with our partners, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and other agencies to gather all the facts and determine a motive to what was initially reported to the FBI as a bombing incident to which our special agent, bomb text and others responded. Obviously we're always concerned in these sorts of events to ascertain what the motive is. We understand that's everybody's at the forefront of everyone's thoughts. And so looking into exactly what the motivation is remains our number one priority. This is why the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has been brought into play. The Joint Terrorism Task Force most important part of that acronym is joint. It is done in concert with our partners, which are comprised of more than a dozen investigative agencies here throughout the state of Nevada. We've been working hand in glove side by side tirelessly to determine is there any ongoing threat to the public to identify the subject, to determine any potential connection to other events going on in the world, most notably in New Orleans and then obviously to determine if there's if there's anything else that we need to be tracking down at this time. As the sheriff's pointed out, we feel that the subject has been identified, although not conclusively waiting for DNA evidence on that front. However, we do feel like we have the subject identified and at this time there is no information about additional subjects that the FBI is tracking on. We are resources, as I mentioned, that have been deployed in support of this event, include special agent bomb techs, our evidence response team, which is processing crime scenes side by side with the with the forensics folks from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, our investigators, our intelligence analysts and then outside of the FBI Las Vegas field office, we have investigative leads that are being conducted by FBI field offices both internationally and domestically as well. As always, when the FBI is involved with any sort of case like this, we ask for help for the public. Anyone with information related to this incident, we encourage you to please call 1-800-CALL-FBI or you can submit a tip online at tips dot FBI dot gov. We've already received thousands of tips related to this incident. The challenge that we face moving forward is to separate those that are pertinent and relevant and those that can be verified from those that have not. For example, one of the tips that we received just today relates to information alluding to this subject's personal experiences related to his time and activity in the military. Again, that's unverified and uncorroborated, but one of many tips and leads that we will be following up in the days that come. If you have any additional information, again, encourage everyone 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit it online tips dot FBI dot gov. We will tirelessly work to exhaust all investigative leads and conclusively determine what the nature of this particular incident was, what the motivation was and to the extent possible share all that information as we obtain it. I'll now turn some time over to the assistant special agent in charge from the A.T. F. Kenny Cooper. Good morning, everybody. My name is Kenny Cooper. I'm the assistant special agent in charge of A.T. F. San Francisco Field Division. A.T. F. Is bringing our expertise in post blast investigations and our crime gun intelligence to specifically assist in this investigation. Um, I will tell you that our special agent bomb techs are working with FBI and with Las Vegas Metro and sifting through that post blast debris to find components and investigative leads that will derive from that evidence process. We're too early into that investigation process to give any determination as far as how this device was initiated. I will say that we do know that the components primarily consist of fireworks, mortars, aerial shells and um, are all consumer fireworks. Nothing commercial grade has been discovered at this point and we've identified some fuel enhancers like the Coleman fuel and VP racing fuel and some explosive targets that can be purchased at any sporting goods store. We've also, um, as you as a sheriff mentioned, we've identified two semi-automatic handguns recovered from the Tesla. We have successfully traced those firearms and I can tell you that Matthew Leivis Berg, um, lawfully purchased both of these firearms on December 30th 2024. Um, we have agents following up those investigative leads. We know exactly where those firearms were purchased and we will share any developments from those leads as they come in. Thank you. We also have the Clark County Fire Chief here, john Steinbeck, and he didn't have any additional updates. But if there's any questions in regards to what the fire fire fire department did during this, um, he's here to answer those questions as well. With that, I just like to say before I take a couple questions from all of you, you'll notice that we're not releasing information that we haven't corroborated and verified. We're very well aware of all of the things that are going around on social media. Um, but that's just the way we're gonna conduct this investigation. We're not putting it out until we can tell you for a fact what information it is that we're putting out. And so we're gonna continue to do that. But I'm also confident to tell the Las Vegas community and this great nation that we don't believe there's any further threat from this subject or anybody associated to him here in Las Vegas. With that Denise, I saw you had your hand up. If you could just identify yourself, please. Um, do you think that have any other connections for Las Vegas? Have you ever been here before or any reason? So the question was, did he have the subject have any ties to Las Vegas or had he ever been here before? I do believe we had had one instance a number of years ago where he stayed at a local hotel, but we still trying to verify that information as well. Sir, the David charge family. There was, uh, you have a gentleman in a cyber Trump Trump hotel. Um, there's information that the FBI was in Colorado Springs last night, possibly at the gentleman's home. Any information about why? I think I'll let, uh, Spencer answer that question. Yeah. So as I mentioned, the motivation at this point is unknown. Uh, we are, as I mentioned earlier, following investigative leads both domestically and internationally as well. And so that includes search warrants and witness interviews, collecting forensic information and basically trying to compile the facts. And so there's investigative activity taking place literally around the globe, trying to determine what the potential nexus is. But at this time, at this particular moment in time, as the sheriff aptly said, we have to focus on what we know and what we don't know. We know we have a bombing, absolutely. And it's a bombing that certainly has factors that raise concern. It's not lost on us that it's in front of, you know, 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. That's the purpose of the investigation that we're conducting is to get the bottom of exactly what happened, why and how. Sir, Tim Caputo, a KVC of Los Angeles. You mentioned the number of similarities between this case and the New Orleans. How far the investigation process if you guys go, would you kind of rule out that they are connected, knowing that you already have a couple of things that seem to connect them together? So the question is, is how are we working to rule in or rule out any connections to the New Orleans event? And the answer to that is every tip and lead that comes in, every piece of evidence that comes in, we don't discount it. We work it through. You know, it's a interesting thing during these kinds of investigations that if these turned out to be simply similarities, very strange similarities to have. And so we're not prepared to rule in or rule out anything at this point. Um, there's lots more for us to do in this investigation. We haven't even gotten into the phones or the computers, which are usually very, very instructive and informative to us as we investigate. And we've got a lot more work to do to trace him to see the stores that he went to rule out anybody else. Lots of lots of investigative work to do. And we're just trying to give you an update on what we know now that is factual. Really? We believe the question is, was the gunshot self-inflicted? And we do believe it was since he was the only person in the vehicle and it occurred immediately prior to the vehicle blowing up back there, sir. Wait, the evidence you came so far. Are you comfortable now calling this suicide video? The question is, am I comfortable calling it a suicide mission? I'm comfortable calling it a suicide with the bombing that occurred immediately thereafter. I'm not giving it any other labels. Have they shared any prior red flags? The question is, did we have any of the family members share any particular red flags? Again, I'll go back to what I know is circulating on social media, but none of that has been verified at this point. All the components you found inside the Cybertruck, were they all purchased in Colorado? The question is, did we were all the components found inside of the cybertruck purchased in Colorado? And I don't know the answer to that. That's part of why we're doing the extensive part of the investigation. Can you talk a little bit about the security measures you have in place at the hotel now? So as you all know, we had just successfully completed a New Year's Eve event where hundreds of thousands of people come to Las Vegas. I've extended our posture just like it is for a New Year's Eve event where I have thousands of police officers that are working day in and day out. Obviously, dozens and dozens of people that are working on this investigation as well. We'll continue to look at what that security posture looks like, but I'm confident in the safety of our community as we move forward. Go ahead in the middle there. What do you have any sort of criminal record at all? And also, do you know when that tarot vehicle was rented? The question was, is there any criminal record? Um, none that I'm aware of. Um, that has not been brought to my attention that he had a criminal record and I said that the cyber truck was rented on December 28th in Denver, Colorado. Right here. Hi. Have you heard? That world hotel. Yeah. The question is, do we know if he checked into the resorts world the day before this? I'm not aware of that information. Sir, five Vegas. You mentioned the national. Just there. The question is generally about the security posture and that's that's entirely our entire community. Not only Fremont Street and the strip, but surrounding neighborhoods as well. Just to make sure that we have the community fill in that level of safety that they need to fill after an event such as this right next to you there. How is that? The question is, how are we able to use the tracking or the charging stations to track the vehicle all the way through? And I'm not exactly sure how to answer that question just yet. I know that there's there's some capability by being able to determine that the car is connected to the charger. Um, one of the things that we're looking for is anybody that may have been at the charging location at the same time, we're looking to try to identify them because their vehicles would have also had cameras that would have taped anybody in in and around them or trying to get people that may have been in the same locations at the same time that have video on their vehicle that could provide that video to us as well. I'll take two more. Go ahead. What? Yeah, the question is about the cyber truck and the lack of damage to the cyber truck and containing the explosion. Carlos, if you could put that truck back up there, it might be helpful. But you know, you'll see if you look on the outside of that vehicle, it's hard to tell from that photograph. But other than the windows being gone, that that's a bit more disassembled than it was at the scene and the back area being blown off. There's no evidence of physical damage to the sides of that vehicle. And so the explosion that was within that vehicle sort of vented out and up, but it didn't even damage the glass doors at the trump. So um, I'm not sure what that means. I also know that there's a number of unexploded pieces of the things that he had inside of that vehicle. And so I just don't think that it was done as well as he was expecting it to be done. But go ahead. Yeah. I was wondering, were you able to recover the video from the truck? So the question is, are we able to recover the video from the Cybertruck? And many of you may know that those cyber trucks contain a tremendous number of cameras. Again, Mr Musk has sent out a number of his folks that will be arriving here this afternoon with the intent to try to capture the part of that, that captured all of the video from inside of the truck. Sir, just quickly, you had mentioned the number of the components in the back of the truck that did not go off. Um, maybe this is a better question for APF. But when it comes to the rudimentary nature of the bomb, I think we mostly think of a bomb as connected. This seems like individual kind of intermediary and difficult to move the voters put together. Can you speak to how you think this is a bomb or was it just several pieces of things that might fall off and might explode? Yeah, it I'll tell you, it does appear that it was, um, I just want to be careful with my language here. But the level of sophistication is not what we would expect from from an individual with this type of military experience. Um, that most of that, the materials inside that Tesla were fuel to an exploit to help fuel a greater explosion. Um, but it's too early to answer any question is, is if there was sophisticated connectivity to those components to to make it ignite in the way that it did. There was one last hand over here. I'll take your last question. My Carter Newsmax idea of the suspect has been in touch with any outside terrorist groups. Has this investigation extended globally? The question is, do we know whether the subject's been in touch with any outside terrorist groups or if it's been investigated globally? And so if you want me to, okay, so yeah, the question about whether it's being investigated globally. Absolutely. Like I said, we're running down investigative leads around the world. No information that we're aware of right now that connects this individual to any terrorist organization around the world. But that's obviously the thrust of the investigation is ruling out that there's any sort of terrorism nexus. And again, getting at what the ideology is. We appreciate you all coming in. We will be back before you when there's substantial updates to provide to you. Thanks for all your great work.