On New Year’s Day in Las Vegas, a rented Tesla Cybertruck rolled up to the valet entrance of the Trump International Hotel and then exploded.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill later described how, just hours after successfully securing the Strip for a massive New Year’s Eve celebration, everything changed when that 2024 Cybertruck pulled into the valet area.
News 3 Las Vegas reporter Cristen Drummond says Las Vegas Metro Police have now released a detailed after-action report on the incident, nearly ten months after the blast.
The report doesn’t just recap what happened.
It lays out how close the city may have come to a mass-casualty event and admits there were serious gaps in the response.
A Vehicle-Borne Bomb And A Rapid, Imperfect Response
Drummond reports that Metro identified the bomber as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, a U.S. Army veteran who rented the Cybertruck in Colorado and drove it to Las Vegas.
Metro says Livelsberger shot himself while igniting the vehicle, which had been “staged with explosives and fireworks” at the hotel entrance.
Investigators found writings on phones in his possession where he insisted it was not a terrorist attack, but a “wake-up call.”
Even so, Metro and federal partners formally labeled the blast a premeditated attack involving a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, with the potential for mass casualties and extensive damage to the Trump International Hotel, according to Drummond.
That description alone makes the case darker than just a suicide bombing.
It suggests the authorities believe he built a device capable of doing far more harm than what we saw on video.
CBS News reporter Andres Gutierrez tells viewers that Metro’s after-action report, roughly 70 pages long in his description, reads like a play-by-play of the first responders’ actions.
He says it walks through the moment Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Berger, identified in his report as a Green Beret, pulled into the valet and detonated the Cybertruck, then shows how police and firefighters worked together to secure the scene.
Gutierrez explains that investigators used a network of surveillance cameras, license plate readers, and Tesla charging-station video to retrace the truck’s route from Colorado to Las Vegas.
He notes that the report also explains how Metro coordinated with federal agencies to figure out whether anyone else might have been involved.
So, even while officials insist Livelsberger acted alone, they treated it like a possible wider plot until they could prove otherwise.
Gaps In The Response And New Training For Future Attacks
The after-action report is not just self-congratulation.
Drummond says it contains nine recommendations aimed at fixing “operational challenges” that surfaced during and after the Cybertruck explosion.
One major lesson involves the Cybertruck itself.
Drummond reports that Metro acknowledged officers lacked proper awareness of the unique hazards of lithium-ion battery fires and electric vehicles.
Gutierrez adds that this confusion actually slowed down firefighters at first, because of uncertainty about how to safely approach the burning truck.
The report calls for specific training for first responders on EV fires, and Drummond notes that Metro says this recommendation was completed by January 31 and added to the department’s online training platform in the spring.
Gutierrez highlights other shortcomings too.
He says the report criticizes a delay in getting a fire liaison to the command post, which slowed communication between police and firefighters.
He also notes that Metro locked down the front of the hotel quickly but left a rear area unsecured longer than it should have been during evacuations, something the report explicitly flags.
Drummond says the document also urges updates to protective equipment for crime-scene analysts, standardized training on new technologies, and extended staffing coverage around major events like New Year’s Eve.
All of that paints a picture of a department that moved fast, but not perfectly.
It’s sobering to realize that even in a city built around massive events and tight security, a single vehicle packed with fuel and fireworks still exposed cracks in the system.
A Highly Planned Attack – And A Classified Manifesto
Both Drummond and Gutierrez make clear this was not a spur-of-the-moment act.
Gutierrez says investigators believe Berger/Livelsberger spent days preparing for the attack.
He reports that the bomber rented the Cybertruck through the Turo car-sharing app in Colorado, then loaded it with fireworks, gas cans, and racing fuel before driving more than 700 miles to Las Vegas.
According to Gutierrez, he also disabled the truck’s cameras so nothing inside would record what he was doing.
When the Cybertruck exploded, Gutierrez says, the blast killed the bomber and injured six other people near the hotel.
Drummond notes that Metro crime analysts collected more than 4,000 photos from the scene, grabbed 125 pieces of evidence, and secured 62 search warrants over ten days.
She adds that investigators used a scanner to create a 3D digital reconstruction of the blast site and even deployed drones to examine the area while keeping people at a safe distance.
Gutierrez reports that detectives recovered two iPhones, a handgun, and a written manifesto from the bomber.
He says the phones were damaged but still readable, and that the digital evidence helped confirm he acted alone.
But the most unsettling detail is what happened next.
Drummond says the investigation was turned over to the Department of Defense on January 9 after the manifesto found on Livelsberger’s phone was declared classified.
Gutierrez also notes that the Defense Department classified the manifesto, meaning we still do not know the full motive – only that this was “a planned, deliberate attack” carried out by a decorated Green Beret.
The Classified Manifesto And Redacted’s Unanswered Questions
That decision to classify the manifesto is exactly what the political commentary show Redacted, hosted by Clayton and Natali Morris, zeroes in on.
On their segment, Clayton Morris tells viewers that Las Vegas police “just released a new report” about the Cybertruck explosion, and that it reveals bomber Matthew Livelsberger had “a very long manifesto” on his phone – but “you’re not going to get to see it.”
Morris says the story “keeps getting stranger the deeper that you look into it.”
He reminds the audience that the Cybertruck pulled up to Trump International, exploded moments later, and left seven people injured and the driver dead, in his retelling.
Redacted’s guest, journalist Breanna Morello of American Journal and Infowars, says she dug into the police report and noticed that it mentions the Pentagon’s classification of the manifesto twice as the reason authorities stopped sharing information.
She tells the hosts that she contacted what she refers to as the Department of War, was told they’d get back to her after talking to national intelligence about why the document was classified, and then heard nothing more, even after following up.
Morello says she recently became credentialed at the Pentagon and plans to “fight for this transparency” because she doesn’t think it helps the American people to be left without answers.
She stresses that if certain lines in the document really are sensitive, she’s fine with those staying secret, but she believes there should at least be an explanation for why the overall manifesto is classified.
Clayton Morris suggests that when the government quickly classifies something like this, it naturally fuels the sense that “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
He and Morello point to the earlier email Livelsberger sent to retired Army intelligence officer Sam Shoemate, which they say has already been made public.
According to Morris’s summary of that email, Livelsberger described a corrupt, collapsing government, claimed knowledge of secret drone programs, cover-ups, and war crimes, accused senior officials of betraying service members, and called the country’s leaders “weak and feckless.”
He reportedly urged members of the military to “wake up,” all while quietly renting a Cybertruck, loading it with fuel and fireworks, and driving to Las Vegas.
Morello admits on Redacted that it’s hard to verify everything in that email.
She says that as a journalist, she often hears from people whose messages could be either signs of deep emotional distress or genuine whistleblowing – and that it’s difficult to tell which is which without access to corroborating information.
But for her, what makes the Las Vegas case feel darker is the combination of a classified manifesto, a verified manifesto-style email, and a government that, in her words, has a history of giving the media misleading information in other high-profile cases.
A Darker Story Of Power, Secrecy, And “Lessons Learned”
When you put all three sources together – Drummond’s local reporting from News 3 Las Vegas, Gutierrez’s national coverage for CBS News, and the skeptical commentary from Redacted – the Cybertruck bombing looks even more troubling than it did on New Year’s Day.
On the official side, Metro’s after-action report shows an intense, meticulous response: thousands of photos, dozens of warrants, high-tech 3D scans, and a list of concrete fixes for weaknesses in training and coordination.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill even frames the report, Drummond notes, as a chance for the department to learn from a critical event before the next big holiday crowds pack the Strip.
At the same time, both Drummond and Gutierrez point out that once the Defense Department classified the bomber’s manifesto, the flow of information about why he did it largely stopped.
That’s exactly the information gap Clayton and Natali Morris, and Breanna Morello, are now pressing on from the outside.
Their argument on Redacted is that you cannot declare a document secret, cite that as the reason for limiting public updates, and then expect people to simply trust that there is nothing more to see.
In a case where a highly trained Green Beret allegedly built a vehicle-borne explosive device, drove hundreds of miles, parked it at a Trump-branded hotel, and died in the blast, mystery is the last thing most people want.
There are legitimate reasons for classification, especially if specific operational details, intelligence methods, or foreign programs are involved.
But from the public’s view, those reasons are invisible.
What they see instead is a man who warned about corruption, built a bomb, attacked a high-profile target, and left behind a manifesto that only a few officials are allowed to read.
The new police report makes the Las Vegas Cybertruck bombing feel darker because it proves two things at once.
The attack was more carefully planned and potentially more deadly than early headlines suggested.
And the most important questions – what exactly drove a decorated soldier to do this, and what he wrote in his final manifesto – are still locked away, deep inside the same government he seemed so desperate to warn about.
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The article New police report makes Las Vegas Cybertruck bombing even darker than previously known first appeared on Survival World.
Gary’s love for adventure and preparedness stems from his background as a former Army medic. Having served in remote locations around the world, he knows the importance of being ready for any situation, whether in the wilderness or urban environments. Gary’s practical medical expertise blends with his passion for outdoor survival, making him an expert in both emergency medical care and rugged, off-the-grid living. He writes to equip readers with the skills needed to stay safe and resilient in any scenario.
