A Green Beret who drove a Tesla Cybertruck packed with explosives to Las Vegas and detonated its payload at the Trump International Hotel left a suicide note saying the spectacle was intended to The United States is sounding a “wake-up call,” not an act of terrorism.
“This was not a terrorist attack,” wrote Matthew Levesberg, who police said shot himself before Wednesday’s explosion. “This is a wake-up call. Americans are all about spectacle and violence. What better way to get my point across than with a show of fireworks and explosives?
At a news conference in Las Vegas on Friday, local and federal law enforcement officials released some of the notes and letters that suggested the former Army master sergeant major and Afghanistan war veteran was motivated in part by his combat experience and his exposure to Perceptions of political events unfolding in the United States.
“Why am I doing this personally now? I need to clear my mind of the brothers I lost and lighten the burden of the lives I took,” the 37-year-old wrote.
Suicide Prevention and Crisis Counseling Resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek professional help and call 9-8-8. The nation’s first national three-digit mental health crisis hotline, 988, connects callers with trained mental health counselors. In the United States and Canada, text “HOME” to 741741 to call the crisis text hotline.
Authorities have not yet released the soldier’s full text found on a cell phone found inside the destroyed vehicle.
“These are just excerpts,” said Assistant Chief Dori Colen of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
“He did provide more information that was different in terms of political grievances, conflict issues elsewhere rather than here, domestic issues, social issues … but also personal challenges,” Coren said.
The New Year’s Day bombing occurred hours after a terrorist attack in New Orleans killed 14 people and injured about 30 others when a veteran drove another truck through a crowded street.
Authorities initially questioned whether the two incidents might be related, given that both attacks appeared to be ideologically motivated. Investigators later determined the New Orleans attacker acted alone.
In other text excerpts released Friday, Lifsberger expressed frustration with the country’s direction.
“Military members, veterans, and all Americans. It’s time to wake up! We are being led by weak and incompetent leadership who are only making themselves richer.
He also wrote that America is “the best country ever!” But now we are terminally ill and headed for collapse.
Lifsberg served as an Army Green Beret master sergeant. He spent most of his time at the Financial Times. According to authorities, Carson was in Colorado and Germany. He was on approved leave in Germany at the time of his death.
Lifsberg once criticized the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 on his Facebook profile, calling it “the biggest foreign policy failure in U.S. history.”
Times staff writers Summer Lin, Hannah Fry, Richard Winton and Terry Castleman Report contributed.
