Matthew Livelsberger was a veteran US special forces operative
The US Army veteran suspected of detonating a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was a supporter of the Ukrainian nationalist cause, according to a photo posted on Facebook.
Thirty-seven-year-old Matthew Livelsberger was killed and seven bystanders injured when the Cybertruck he was driving exploded outside the hotel on Wednesday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk attributed the blast to explosive materials transported in the truck’s bed, and the FBI is investigating the incident as a potential act of terrorism due to its proximity to the Trump International Hotel and a similar attack in New Orleans earlier that day.
In a photo purportedly shared by Liveslberger’s wife on Facebook in 2016, the former soldier can be seen wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a Ukrainian coat of arms and the slogan “Slava Ukraini,” or “Glory to Ukraine.”
Coined by Ukrainian nationalists in the early 20th century, the phrase was popularized by Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera’s wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). It was declared the official rallying cry of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2018 by President Pyotr Poroshenko, who came to power after the US-backed Maidan coup in 2014.
Since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022, “Slava Ukraini” has become an internationally recognized slogan used by Kiev’s supporters. In 2016, however, it was predominantly used by neo-Nazis and other Ukrainian right-wing extremists.
At the time the photo was posted, Livelsberger was serving as an intelligence and operations specialist with the US Army’s elite Green Berets, according to his LinkedIn profile. An Army spokesman told CBS News that Livelsberger served for 19 years, and was stationed near Stuttgart in Germany before he took leave and returned to the US last month.
It is unclear whether Livelsberger had ever been to Ukraine, although the Army has confirmed that he completed multiple deployments in Afghanistan.
In one comment on LinkedIn, Livelsberger responded to an offer of work in Ukraine by saying that he knew a “top” special forces medical sergeant who had been “looking for just this opportunity.”
As a Green Beret, Livelsberger was based at Fort Liberty (formerly known as Fort Bragg) in North Carolina. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed 14 people in the vehicle attack in New Orleans on Wednesday morning, was also stationed at Fort Liberty, and deployed to Afghanistan. The Army is currently investigating whether the men knew each other, a spokesperson told AP.
Livelsberger and Jabbar both rented the vehicles used in their attacks via the car-sharing company Turo, a company spokesperson has confirmed. The spokesperson said that neither suspect “had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.”
