Soldier Accused In Tesla Cybertruck Blast 'Struggled With PTSD', Left Note Saying 'It Was Wakeup Call'

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the suspected driver of the Tesla Cybertruck, that exploded outside the trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, likely had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"Investigative steps have discovered and information of the army indicates that he likely suffered from PTSD, and we're also aware that there were potential other family issues or personal grievances in his own life that may have been contributing factors," the FBI official was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Police said suspect killed himself with a gunshot to the mouth. Officals said it appeared to be a "tragic case of suicide."

On Thursday, officials identified the person found dead inside the Cybertruck as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, an active-duty Army soldier from Colorado Springs. Livelsberger served in the Army since 2006 and deployed twice to Afghanistan.

Livelsberger rose through the ranks and also served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, according to the Army. He recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died, the Associated Press reported.

He was awarded five Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.

In recent years, Livelsberger confided to Alicia Arritt, a former girlfriend who had served as an Army nurse, that he faced significant pain and exhaustion she attributed to traumatic brain injury.

He opened up to Arritt, 39, whom he met and began dating in Colorado in 2018, about exhaustion, pain that kept him up at night, and reliving violence from his deployment in Afghanistan , Arritt said.

“My life has been a personal hell for the last year,” he told Arritt in text messages during their early days of dating that she shared with The Associated Press.

Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, also wrote in notes he left on his cellphone that he needed to“cleanse” his mind“of the brothers I've lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”

“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wakeup call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives,” Livelsberger wrote in one letter found by authorities and released Friday, the Associated Press reported.

Livelsberger said in one letter that the US was“terminally ill and headed toward collapse.”

Law enforcement officials said Livelsberger harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump. In one of the notes he left, he said the country needed to“rally around” Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Musk has recently become a member of Trump's inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the day of the explosion. Both had attended Trump's New Year's Eve party at his South Florida estate.

Among the charred items found inside were a handgun at Livelsberger's feet, another firearm, fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.

The cybertruck explosion was reported hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a former Army soldier, rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans' famed French Quarter early on New Year's Day.

Authorities said 14 people were killed and about 30 were injured in the attack early Wednesday. The FBI says they believe Jabbar acted alone and that it is being investigated as a terrorist attack.

Jabbar had suspected bomb-making materials at his home and reserved the vehicle used in the deadly attack more than six weeks earlier, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The FBI reiterated there was no definitive link between a truck attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day that killed over a dozen people and the Cybertruck explosion later the same day, which left seven people with minor injuries.

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