2025 Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion

2025 Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion
CCTV footage of the truck explosion
Location of the explosion
LocationOutside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.
Coordinates36°07′45″N 115°10′21″W / 36.129167°N 115.1725°W / 36.129167; -115.1725
DateJanuary 1, 2025 (2025-01-01)
8:39 a.m. (PST)
Attack type
Truck bomb
Weapons
Deaths1 (the perpetrator, by gunfire)
Injured7
PerpetratorMatthew Livelsberger
MotiveUnder investigation

On January 1, 2025, at approximately 8:39 a.m. (PST), an IED exploded in a Tesla Cybertruck parked outside the main entrance of the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The vehicle's sole occupant died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head immediately prior to the explosion and seven bystanders were injured by the blast. Authorities found that the vehicle contained firework mortars and gas canisters, which had fueled the explosion and fire.

Authorities identified the driver and alleged perpetrator as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an American-born, active-duty United States Army Special Forces soldier from Colorado Springs, Colorado, who was on leave from overseas duty.

Livelsberger wrote two digital letters in which he said he was using explosives to convey a political message and ease his mental burdens. Livelsberger also sent an email manifesto stating he was under surveillance due to his knowledge of advanced military technologies and covert operations, including an alleged cover-up of war crimes. The manifesto narrative, which detailed plans to escape across the Mexico border, showed no suicidal intent and conflicts with the two digital letters apparently authored earlier that month.

The truck explosion was one of two vehicular attacks that occurred in the United States on the first day of 2025, the other being the New Orleans truck attack hours earlier. Authorities consider the two unrelated.