While authorities have ruled out additional suspects in an attack in New Orleans, they continue to investigate any possible links between the incident and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
The attacks occurred within hours of each other on New Year’s Day.
Federal officials said the investigation is still in its early stages and no conclusions should be reached at this time, but the two suspects had backgrounds in the US Army and served at the same base in North Carolina. The two men also rented the vehicles used in the attacks through the Toro platform, where people can rent cars directly from vehicle owners.
Christopher Raya, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, said during a news conference on Thursday that at this point there is “no specific connection” between the two incidents. But officials are continuing to review the evidence in both attacks.
“It’s an interesting thing during this type of investigation that if it turns out that these are just similarities — very uncanny similarities — so we’re not prepared to rule or rule anything out at this point,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Chief. Kevin McMahill said.
In New Orleans, the feds looked into whether the man who mowed down revelers on Bourbon Street had accomplices, but officials said they found no accomplices and that the attacker acted alone.
Shams al-Din Jabbar, 42, was driving a rented pickup truck bearing an ISIS flag from Houston to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. Early on New Year’s Day, officials said he drove the truck onto a sidewalk, swerving around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said.
Officials said the attack killed 14 people and injured 35 others. Authorities said police killed Jabbar after he got out of the truck and opened fire on the officers.
Investigators found two explosive devices in coolers in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing items in the area several hours before the attack, according to the FBI.
Law enforcement sources told The Times that the devices appeared to be homemade pipe bombs fitted with nails. The devices did not explode.
A barricade was seen on Royal Street after a car struck New Year’s revelers in New Orleans’ French Quarter on Wednesday.
(George Walker IV/Associated Press)
Law enforcement officials told the Times that Jabbar was wearing body armor. Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly, and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, served on active duty in human resources and information technology and deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant, the service said.
Raya said Thursday that the FBI had discovered five videos that Jabbar posted online hours before the attack, in which he stated that he had joined ISIS before this summer. In one video, Jabbar explained that he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was “afraid that the headlines would not focus on the war between believers and infidels,” Raya said.
“This was an act of terrorism,” Raya said. “It was premeditated and an evil act.”
In a YouTube video, Jabbar said he was born in Beaumont, Texas, and worked in human resources and information technology while in the military. He described himself as a property manager and real estate agent.
Officials are combing through data on three phones and two laptops linked to Jabbar to determine if there are any other potential leads.
The FBI is also investigating the explosion of fuel canisters and fire mortar shells packed in the bed of an E-truck outside President-elect Donald Trump’s home near the famous Las Vegas Strip, killing the driver and slightly wounding seven bystanders, officials said.
McMahill said authorities believe the driver was 37-year-old Matthew Livelsperger, but he cautioned that the person’s body was burned beyond recognition, so officials were unable to positively identify him. Authorities found a military ID, credit cards and a passport bearing Livelsberger’s name inside the car, McMahill said at a news conference.
The car driver was shot in the head before the car exploded. Two semi-automatic firearms purchased by Levelsberger on Dec. 30 were also found inside the vehicle, McMahill said.
The Cybertruck involved in the Las Vegas shooting and the Ford pickup truck used in the New Orleans attack were rented through Turo, a platform where people can rent cars directly from vehicle owners.
A company spokesperson said Toro is working with law enforcement, but does not believe any of the tenants “have a criminal background that would identify them as a security threat.”
Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck in Denver on Dec. 28 and charged the vehicle at Tesla charging stations in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, McMahill said.
A traffic camera recorded the e-truck arriving in Las Vegas at around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. The truck traveled back and forth on the Strip for about an hour and spent some time in a company parking lot near Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard before stopping in the covered driveway outside the Trump International Hotel. McMahill said the truck exploded about 17 seconds later near the glass doors of the hotel entrance.
The authorities said that a surveillance camera spotted the car driving next to the hotel parking section an hour before the accident.
Investigators have not yet determined how the fireworks, gas bombs, and camping fuel in the back of the car were ignited. Federal officials are still trying to determine the motive behind the explosion.
An image from a video provided by law enforcement shows items in the bed of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
(Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via Associated Press)
Livelsberger, who was from the Colorado Springs area, was a sergeant in the Army’s Green Beret Special Forces unit, according to an Army statement and his LinkedIn profile. He spent most of his time in Ft. Carson in Colorado and in Germany where he served with the 10th Special Forces Group. McMahill said he was on vacation from Germany at the time of the explosion.
The explosion did not cause serious damage to the body of the electronic truck and did not destroy the glass doors leading to the hotel lobby. Most of the material inside the vehicle was fuel to help create a larger explosion, according to Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,” Cooper said.
Both Livelsperger and Jabbar previously served on the Army base. Bragg, now known as Ft. Liberty, in North Carolina, but it is not clear whether they served at the same time or in the same unit. The two men also served in Afghanistan in 2009, though officials say they have no evidence they were in the same location in the country or in the same unit, McMahill said.
Livelsberger entered active duty in the Army in December 2012 and was a Green Beret candidate after serving in the Army Reserve and National Guard, according to an Army spokesman. His LinkedIn profile says he became a director of remote and autonomous systems two months ago.
On Facebook, Livelsperger posted in drone hobby groups to showcase his projects. He asked fellow enthusiasts what parts to use while assembling his custom machines.
He also criticized the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, describing it on social media as “the biggest foreign policy failure in US history.”
The FBI, ATF and Colorado Springs Police Department have issued a search warrant at a Colorado Springs home in connection with the explosion that occurred in Las Vegas on Thursday morning. Federal authorities declined to provide additional details.
Investigators are looking into whether the driver deliberately targeted one of Trump’s properties using a Tesla. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is a close advisor to the president-elect.
“There is investigative activity going on literally all over the world,” said Spencer Evans, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Las Vegas. “At this particular time…we have to focus on what we know and what we don’t know. It has not escaped us that the car is a Tesla in front of the Trump building, but we have no information at this point that tells us conclusively or indicates that it is because of this specific ideology or Any of the underlying causes.
Times staff writer Terry Castleman contributed to this report