*

Person in Cybertruck killed himself, seven injured in

blast

*

FBI says search of Colorado Springs home related to

explosion

*

Incident occurred hours after man drove truck into crowd

in New

Orleans

(Adds definitive identification paragraphs 1, 4-5)

By Rich McKay and Hannah Lang

Jan 2 (Reuters) - Officials on Thursday positively

identified the person found dead inside the Cybertruck that

exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas as a

U.S. Army soldier from Colorado, while the FBI said it was not

yet clear if the blast was an act of terrorism.

The FBI said it had so far found no definitive link between

the New Year's Day New Orleans truck attack that killed 15

people and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas later on the

same day, which left seven people with minor injuries.

The Cybertruck driver was identified as Matthew

Livelsberger, active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs,

and police said he acted alone.

Livelsberger killed himself with a gunshot to the mouth,

police said, citing a report from the Clark County

Coroner/Medical Examiner, according to a post on X by the Las

Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Livelsberger was inside the vehicle when gasoline

canisters and large firework mortars in the truck bed exploded,

police said.

Police previously had told a press conference they

believed the person found in the truck was Livelsberger, but

because the body was burned beyond recognition, investigators

were awaiting confirmation from DNA evidence and medical

records.

Livelsberger shot himself just before explosives in the

vehicle were detonated, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters. A handgun was found at

his feet.

It was one of two semi-automatic handguns found in the

Cybertruck, both of which were lawfully purchased by

Livelsberger on Dec. 30. Law enforcement also found military

identification, a passport, an iPhone and credit cards in the

truck.

Livelsberger was assigned to the Army Special Operations

Command and was on approved leave at the time of his death, an

Army official said. The Army Special Operations Command would

not comment on an ongoing investigation, a spokesperson said.

A U.S. official told Reuters that Livelsberger had been

awarded a Bronze Star for valor and an Army commendation for

valor, along with a Combat Infantryman Badge. He completed five

combat deployments to Afghanistan, the official said.

A close relative of Livelsberger, who asked that his name

not be used because he did not want to be publicly linked to the

suspect, told Reuters that Livelsberger had always wanted to be

an "Army soldier, in Special Forces, even as a little kid. And

when he achieved that, he was a soldier's soldier."

Livelsberger was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump

throughout the Republican's political career, seeing him as

someone who loves the military, the relative told Reuters. "He

thought Trump was the greatest thing in the world."

Livelsberger went to high school in Bucyrus in northern

Ohio, the man said, where he played football and baseball and

appeared happy and popular.

The man said there had been no inkling in the family that

Livelsberger was planning something like the Las Vegas bombing.

He said he could not reconcile what Livelsberger is believed to

have done with the person he knew both as a child and man.

Livelsberger graduated from Bucyrus High School in 2005,

according to Ohio media. He immediately left to join the

military after graduation, his relative said.

Videos taken by witnesses inside and outside the Las Vegas

hotel showed the Cybertruck, an electric vehicle with a

distinctive angular design, exploding and flames pouring out of

it, as it sat in front of the hotel around 8:40 a.m. local time

(1640 GMT) on Wednesday.

A Trump spokesperson did not return a request for comment on

Thursday.

TRUMP BUILDING, TESLA VEHICLE

The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is part of the

Trump Organization, the company of Donald Trump, who will return

to the White House on Jan. 20. The president-elect's son Eric

Trump, an executive with the Trump Organization, praised Las

Vegas fire and law enforcement officials on Wednesday for their

quick action following the explosion.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was a key backer of Trump

in his 2024 presidential campaign and is also an adviser to the

incoming president.

"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... any of the

reasoning behind it," McMahill, of the Las Vegas Metropolitan

Police Department, said.

Police said Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on

Dec. 28 and made stops in several cities, including Albuquerque,

New Mexico, and Flagstaff, Arizona, before arriving in Las Vegas

early on Wednesday.

The truck drove along the city's hotel- and casino-lined

Strip, drove through the Trump hotel's driveway and later

returned to the valet area. The Trump hotel was evacuated and

most guests were moved to another hotel following the explosion.

Both the Cybertruck and the vehicle used in the New Orleans

attack were rented through car-sharing service Turo, McMahill

said.

A Turo spokesperson said the company did not believe either

of the renters of the vehicles involved had a criminal

background that would have identified them as a security threat.