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(NewsNation) — The person authorities believe was killed in the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck carrying a fireworks mortar and camping fuel canisters outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel is an active-duty U.S. Army officer. Three U.S. officials said the man was Matthew Libersberger, a soldier. The Associated Press reported Thursday.
He is said to have worked at the same military base as Shamsud Din Jabbar, a law enforcement official told NewsNation, who intentionally drove his car into a crowd in New Orleans and was 15 years old. A man suspected of murdering someone.
Officials told The Associated Press that Mr. Libersberger was an active-duty Army soldier at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a large Army base in North Carolina that is home to the Army’s Special Forces Command. I admitted that I was having a hard time. However, one official told The Associated Press that there was no overlap in Libersberger’s and Jabbar’s duties while at Fort Bragg.
Libersberger was a member of the Army’s elite Green Berets, a special forces unit that specializes in guerrilla warfare, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rose through the ranks and was on approved leave at the time of his death, the statement said. Green Berets work to counter terrorists overseas using unconventional methods.
What we know about the Cybertruck explosion at the Las Vegas Trump Hotel
An explosion at the entrance to the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning killed one person and injured seven others.
Police said the act was intentional. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said gas canisters, camping fuel and a fireworks mortar were found in the bed of the truck after the fire was extinguished.
However, police have not found any device believed to have been used to ignite the explosion, and it is currently unclear how the explosion occurred.
Video footage of the incident shows a truck parked next to the hotel’s front entrance burst into flames.
Sources told Nexstar’s KLAS that the Cybertruck was rented in Colorado Springs through the car-sharing company Turo.
“We are saddened by the acts of violence that occurred in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and their families,” a Touro spokesperson said in a statement. “We are actively cooperating with law enforcement agencies investigating both incidents. We do not believe that either of the tenants involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks pose a safety threat. I don’t think he had a criminal history.”
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and FBI were seen late Wednesday at a townhome complex in the Stetson Hills neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Nexstar’s KXRM reported.
The FBI’s Denver office confirmed in a statement Thursday morning that both agencies and the Colorado Springs Police Department are “conducting law enforcement operations at residences in Colorado Springs.” The agency confirmed that the investigation is related to the Las Vegas explosion, but said, “Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information will be provided.”
It is unclear whether the house belonged to Libersberger or how it is connected to the incident.
FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Schwartz said the car explosion was an isolated incident and there was no threat to the public.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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