The man who was driving a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning shot himself in the head immediately before the vehicle was engulfed by fire, authorities said Thursday. Earlier Thursday, military officials identified the driver as an Army master sergeant who had been on leave from active duty. Authorities are still working to determine exactly what happened, and what the motivation was for the incident, which injured seven people.
Here is what we know so far. • • • WHAT HAPPENED ON THE MORNING OF THE EXPLOSION? About 8:40 a.m.
local time Wednesday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department received a report of an explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, a 64-story tower on Fashion Show Drive, which is just off the Las Vegas Strip. A rented 2024 Tesla Cybertruck had “pulled up to the glass entrance doors of the hotel,” according to Sheriff Kevin McMahill, before it exploded. Witnesses saw the vehicle engulfed in flames as it sat in front of the hotel.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, authorities said they found gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars in the back of the truck; they said they did not know how the explosion had been ignited. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a statement on the social platform X that “the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck” and that the vehicle had been .