BUCYRUS — U.S. Army MSgt. Matthew Livelsberger was a highly-decorated Green Beret, heroically serving in combat in the defense of his country for nearly two decades.
Federal authorities are still trying to piece together what led the 2005 Bucyrus High School graduate, who was an active-duty soldier, to take his own life with a handgun and use a crude bomb to blow up a rented Tesla Cybertruck outside the Las Vegas Trump Hotel on New Year’s Day.
Livelsberger, 37, who had been living in Colorado Springs, was on approved leave from serving in Germany at the time of his death, a U.S. Army spokesperson said Thursday, according to published reports.
He had reportedly last been stationed at Camp Panzer Kaserne just southwest of Stuttgart, Germany, where he worked as a remote and autonomous systems manager for the Army, involved with drones.
By all accounts, Livelsberger was a military hero who earned five Bronze Star awards, including one with a “V” device for valor, indicating heroism under fire. A Bronze Star with the “V” device is the fourth highest military decoration for valor.
As a master sergeant, he had reached the rank of E-8, one of the highest Army enlisted positions.
He also earned the Afghanistan Campaign Medal with three stars. Each star represents service in a separate campaign in Afghanistan.
According to the Green Beret Foundation, these Army Special Forces soldiers are “the tip of the spear in the United States’ fight against diverse enemies worldwide. Green Berets are experts in unconventional warfare, counterterrorism, foreign internal defense, reconnaissance, direct action, hostage rescue, and other strategic missions.”
After graduation from high school, Livelsberger enlisted into the Army in 2006 under its “18X” program, a Special Forces enlistment contract that allows civilians to join the Special Forces without prior military experience.
He reportedly graduated from basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., according to a story attributed to the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum. He then graduated from the U.S. Army Special Forces qualification course at Fort Bragg, N.C., now called Fort Liberty.
Livelsberger served in the active duty Army from January 2006 to March 2011, before serving in the National Guard and Army Reserve, rejoining the active duty Army in December 2012.
Livelsberger left his Colorado Springs home the day after Christmas after an argument with his wife over apparent infidelity, two sources familiar with the investigation told The New York Post.
His wife — who had a baby daughter with Livelsberger — reportedly told him she knew he had been cheating, the unidentified sources said.
Livelsberger rented the Cybertruck Dec. 28 through the Turo app and made his way 800 miles to Vegas.
“With the new development in the case, investigators are probing whether the soldier’s motive was purely personal rather than political as previously considered given the location of the detonation and choice of vehicle,” the Post reported.
Seven people were injured when the vehicle – filled with fuel canisters and firework mortars — exploded on New Year’s Day. Officials said all injuries were minor.
Officials are investigating if Livelsberger had purposefully picked a Cybertruck to limit civilian casualties, rather than for political reasons, sources told The Post.
If he had used a normal vehicle, the explosion would have likely taken out the glass doors of the building and possibly the lobby — potentially killing innocent bystanders.
The Cybertruck’s steel design contained the explosion, while still giving off large flames, according to the sources.
“I’m comfortable calling it a suicide with a bombing that occurred immediately after,” Sheriff McMahill said during a Thursday press conference.
Livelsberger was “like a Rambo-type, for lack of a better word,” according to his uncle, Dean Livelsberger, who was quoted in The Independent.
The uncle, an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, said his nephew “loved the Army.”
“He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100-percent loving the country,” the uncle was quoted as saying. “He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American.
“It’s one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasn’t just one tour of duty.”
Family members said they don’t believe Livelsberger wanted to hurt anyone else. They said the “bomb” he made was evidence of that.
“Matt was a very skilled warrior, and he would be able to make — if it was him, and if he did this — he would’ve been able to make a more sophisticated explosive than using propane tanks and camping fuel. He was what you might call a ‘super soldier,'” his uncle was quoted saying.
“If you ever read about the things he was awarded, and the experience he had, some of it doesn’t make sense, when he had the skills and ability to make something more, let’s say, ‘efficient.’ His skills were enormous from what he had been taught in the military,” his uncle stated.
According to a story published in the Denver Gazette, Livelsberger texted an ex-girlfriend while he was on the road to Las Vegas.
“I rented a Tesla Cybertruck. It’s the s***,” he wrote her Sunday at 9 a.m. from Denver.
He continued to text her until New Year’s Eve, sending photos and music videos of the vehicle. The ex-girlfriend, Alicia Arritt, said she had no inkling what Livelsberger was planning to do.
“I feel like Batman or halo,” he texted at 9:07 a.m. on Sunday, according to the published report.
“I’m building drones in my new position,” he wrote.”You would love it.”
“How fast is it?” Arritt asked of the Cybertruck.
He texted back: “Ungodly.”
It sounded like conversation between old friends, but, according to Arritt, it was strange to hear from him out of the blue. The two had stopped talking and moved on after a painful 2021 breakup, according to the Denver Gazette.
Livelsberger married another woman in 2022.
“I just want everyone to know that Matt was the kindest man I ever knew,” Arritt told The Denver Gazette. “He got me through a difficult time.”
A neighbor, Cindy Helwig, told the Gazette she’s known Livelsberger and his current wife, who just recently had a baby, for two years.
“He seemed like a normal guy,” she said after talking to other neighbors on Thursday morning. “His wife is awesome, too.
“I never expected anything like that. I would never have thought it would have been him.”
The Las Vegas incident is not believed to have any direct connection to the New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people and injured 35 others, according to the FBI.
The truck used in the New Orleans attack was also rented using the Turo app, officials said.
Livelsberger reportedly killed himself before the explosion and likely planned to cause more damage but the explosive was rudimentary and the steel-sided vehicle absorbed much of the force, officials said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference a handgun was found at the feet of the man, who officials identified as Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted.
Damage from the blast was mostly limited to the interior of the truck. The blast “vented out and up” and didn’t hit the Trump hotel doors just a few feet away, the sheriff said.