In this breaking news update from Las Vegas, investigators share crucial insights into the recent explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Building. The press conference reveals key details about the investigation, including the discovery of various items inside the vehicle, such as military identification, firearms, and mobile devices. Despite the severity of the incident, the authorities have not confirmed the deceased's identity found in the vehicle and are waiting on DNA results.
The conference also highlights potential links between the explosion and military backgrounds, emphasizing that both the deceased and a similar individual involved in a New Orleans attack served in the military, but there's no conclusive evidence of their connection. Investigators have traced the vehicle's journey from Colorado to Las Vegas through Tesla charging stations. They continue to piece together the subject's movements and potential motives behind the incident.
Main takeaways from the video:
Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.
Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:
1. forefront [ˈfɔːrfrʌnt] - (noun) - The leading or most important position or place. - Synonyms: (vanguard, forefront, cutting edge)
We understand that's everybody's at the forefront of everyone's thoughts.
2. conclusive [kənˈkluːsɪv] - (adjective) - Serving to settle an issue or putting an end to doubt or uncertainty. - Synonyms: (definitive, decisive, conclusive)
we feel that the subject has been identified, although not conclusively waiting for DNA evidence on that front, however, we do feel like we have the subject identified
3. tremendous [trəˈmendəs] - (adjective) - Very great in amount, scale, or intensity. - Synonyms: (huge, vast, enormous)
is a tremendous amount of substantial evidence to include he rented the Toro vehicle.
4. surveillance [sɜːrˈveɪləns] - (noun) - Close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal. - Synonyms: (monitoring, observation, scrutiny)
So through extensive surveillance video, we were able to track him leaving there.
5. corroborate [kəˈrɒbəreɪt] - (verb) - To confirm or give support to a statement, theory, or finding. - Synonyms: (verify, authenticate, substantiate)
Again, that's unverified and uncorroborated, but one of many tips and leads that we will be following up in the days that come.
6. identified [aɪˈdentɪfaɪd] - (verb) - To establish or indicate who or what (someone or something) is. - Synonyms: (recognized, picked out, pinpointed)
Although not conclusively waiting for DNA evidence on that front, however, we do feel like we have the subject identified
7. valet [væˈleɪ] - (noun) - A person employed to park cars. - Synonyms: (car attendant, parking attendant, servant)
And as, of course, you all know, the explosion occurs within 17 seconds of his arrival at the valet.
8. tirelessly [ˈtaɪərləsli] - (adverb) - With great effort or energy; unfatigued. - Synonyms: (relentlessly, persistently, unceasingly)
working hand in glove, side by side, tirelessly, to determine is there any ongoing threat to the public...
9. exception [ɪkˈsɛpʃn] - (noun) - A person or thing that is excluded from a general statement or does not follow a rule. - Synonyms: (exclusion, anomaly, irregularity)
Like to point out to you that through exceptional joint investigative effort, we've gotten to a place where we believe we can show you his route to Las Vegas from Colorado.
10. resolved [rɪˈzɒlvd] - (adjective) - Firmly determined to do something; having reached a solution or clarity in mind. - Synonyms: (determined, purposeful, settled)
the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Building are giving a press conference.
New Orleans suspect and Vegas Cybertruck driver served at same military bases, say police - BBC News
Let's bring you some breaking news now and take you live to Las Vegas where investigators looking into that explosion of a cybertruck outside the Trump Building are giving a press conference. Let's take you there live. Stuff that is very useful for this investigation.
As you look at this cybertruck here, we had to transport this down to our Fleet services so that we could really get through this thing. And I remind you that the subject inside wasn't able to be removed for a very long period of time because he was burnt beyond recognition. And so as we continue to move through this, I'm going to talk a little bit about his identity and what we believe. But I would like to highlight a couple of things that the teams found inside of the cybertruck that are useful to the investigation.
And that first and foremost is a military identification. We also found a passport, we found a Desert Eagle.50 caliber semi automatic pistol. And if you'll notice on a lot of these guns that we're going to talk about here, they're almost just burnt beyond recognition as well. There's a SLR, model B30 semi automatic firearm. Number of fireworks that were still in the vehicle that had to be removed. Notably, we found an iPhone and a smartwatch.
And then several credit cards were also in the name of our subject. Our subject is 37 year old Matthew Livel. He's of Colorado springs, Colorado, born July 22 of 1987. Now, as you'll see here on a picture of his driver's license. Let's see, the question really still remains for me and I know that there's a lot of you folks in the media that are identifying this person as the person in our vehicle. As I mentioned to you already, his body is burnt beyond recognition. And I do still not have confirmation 100% that that is the individual that was inside of our vehicle.
And so as I'm calling it now, the subject or person of interest, I will not come back until I have the confirmation through DNA or medical records that this is indeed in fact the subject inside of the vehicle.
Now, further complicating this identification of this individual, we also discovered through the coroner's office that the individual had sustained a gunshot wound to the head prior to the detonation of the vehicle. One of the handguns was found at his feet inside of the vehicle. Obviously in how we're trying to identify him, and I'm feeling comfortable to give you this information, is a tremendous amount of substantial evidence to include he rented the Toro vehicle. There are two tattoos, one of which was on the stomach and one of which is on the arm that we can see bits and pieces of it as in comparison to what it is that we now know he had on his body.
That has given us a lot of confidence that this is in fact the same person as well as the clearly obvious, which is the credit cards, the military identification, the passport. And then furthermore, as you'll see here, in just a very short period of time, we tracked his movements from Colorado to Las Vegas. And in a number of the photographs that we were able to determine he was the individual that was driving the vehicle. And also I'd like to iterate this point to you. We still have only ever seen him in this vehicle and we're not aware of any other subjects involved in this particular case.
Now, I would like to acknowledge a couple of things because I know what's going on in the social media world and there are a number of things in this case that are similar to the attack in New Orleans. We do know that our subject here served in the military. In fact, he's a current member of the military. Both of the subjects served at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. What we do know about that is it's a very large military base and we have no record that they served in the same unit or even at the same years at Fort Bragg. Something that continues to remain under investigation.
I also know that they both served in Afghanistan in 2009. We don't have any evidence that they were in the same province in Afghanistan, the same location or the same unit. Again, something else that remains under investigation. And we also know, of course, that they both used the rental company Turo to rent their vehicles. As far as his military background, it's been confirmed by DOD that he was indeed in the United States Army.
He was also a Green Beret operations sergeant who spent most of his time at Fort Carson, Colorado and in Germany. He was on approved leave from Germany where he was serving with the 10th Special Forces Group. He was also previously in the National Guard and the Army Reserve. Like to point out to you that through exceptional joint investigative effort, we've gotten to a place where we believe we can show you his route to Las Vegas from Colorado. And Carlos will put up the map there for you.
We know that he rented the cybertruck in Denver on December 28th. We tracked his movements through the Tesla charging stations to monument, Colorado on December 30th. On the 31st of December, the truck was charged in Trinidad, Colorado, Las Vegas, New Mexico and Albuquerque and Gallup, New Mexico on January 1st. The truck was charged in Holbrook, Flagstaff and Kingman, Arizona. We last tracked the truck in Kingman at 0533 yesterday morning.
The truck was first spotted in Las Vegas at 7:29am yesterday. And Carlos will pull up a picture of the truck pulling onto Fashion Show Drive here. And that picture was Observed at about 7:34am we know that he pulled into the Trump valet, and I believe we have a video of that. You can see the cybertruck highlighted there. So through extensive surveillance video, we were able to track him leaving there. And we know that he went to several different places along Las Vegas Boulevard, and he spent some time in a parking lot of a business near Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard.
We didn't have a video of the truck pulling back onto Las Vegas Boulevard from the Sands. See that there? That's north on the boulevard from Sands at 8:39, where he then immediately heads to the Trump Hotel, pulls into the valet area. And as, of course, you all know, the explosion occurs within 17 seconds of his arrival at the valet.
There's some additional investigative updates that are going to be provided to you by a couple of the other speakers here, the first of which will be our special agent in charge of the FBI local office, Spencer Evans. Spencer, good morning. My name is Spencer Evans. I'm the Special Agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas division. As the sheriff mentioned, we've been working through the night with our partners, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and other agencies to gather all the facts and determine a motive to what was initially reported to the FBI as a bombing incident to which our Special Agent Bomb Techs and others responded.
Obviously, we're always concerned in these sorts of events to ascertain what the motive is. We understand that's everybody's at the forefront of everyone's thoughts. And so looking into exactly what the motivation is remains our number one priority. This is why the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has been brought into play. The Joint Terrorism Task Force, most important part of that acronym is Joint.
It is done in concert with our partners, which are comprised of more than a dozen investigative agencies here throughout the state of Nevada. We've been working hand in glove, side by side, tirelessly, to determine is there any ongoing threat to the public, to identify the subject, to determine any potential connection to other events going on in the world, most notably in New Orleans, and then obviously to determine if there's. If there's anything else that we need to be tracking down at this time.
As the sheriff's pointed out, we feel that the subject has been identified, although not conclusively waiting for DNA evidence on that front, however, we do feel like we have the subject identified and at this time, there is no information about additional subjects that the FBI is tracking on. We our resources, as I mentioned, that have been deployed in support of this event include special Agent bomb techs, our evidence response team, which is processing crime scenes side by side with the forensics folks from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, our investigators, our intelligence analysts, and then outside of the FBI Las Vegas field office, we have investigative leads that are being conducted by FBI field offices both internationally and domestically as well.
As always, when the FBI is involved with any sort of case like this, we ask for help for the public. Anyone with information related to this incident, we encourage you to please call 1-800- call FBI or you can submit a tip online at tips FBI.gov We've already received thousands of tips related to this incident. The challenge that we face moving forward is to separate those that are pertinent and relevant and those that can be verified from those that have not.
For example, one of the tips that we received just today relates to information alluding to this subject's personal experiences related to his time and activity in the military. Again, that's unverified and uncorroborated, but one of many tips and leads that we will be following up in the days that come. If you have any additional information, again, encourage everyone 1-800- call FBI or submit it online. Tips.FBI.gov we will tirelessly work to exhaust all investigative leads and conclusively determine what the nature of this particular incident was, what the motivation was, and to the extent possible, share all that information as we obtain it.
LAS VEGAS, INVESTIGATION, MILITARY BACKGROUND, INNOVATION, POLITICS, SCIENCE, BBC NEWS