Las Vegas and New Orleans Attackers Had 'Strange Similarities,' But No Connection Established, Authorities Say

As authorities in Nevada and Louisiana continue their investigation into their respective New Year’s Day attacks, questions remain about the attackers as the FBI said there’s “no definitive link” between the events.

On Wednesday, Jan. 1, as people around the world rang in the new year, a terrorist attack in New Orleans killed 15 people. A few hours later, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring seven others.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, has been identified as the attacker in New Orleans; he died in a police shootout shortly after the attack. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was identified as the Cybertruck driver in the Las Vegas attack. The person inside the vehicle was “burned beyond recognition,” Las Vegas Metro Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference on Thursday.

Investigators have said Jabbar acted alone in New Orleans, and McMahill said authorities are “not aware of any other subjects involved” in the Las Vegas case. But McMahill acknowledged some similarities between the attackers. 

Both Jabbar and Livelsberger served in the U.S. Army and were stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, McMahill said at Thursday’s press conference. There is no record the two served in the same unit or whether they were there at the same time, he said.

They both served in Afghanistan in 2009 but police do not yet have information on whether they were in the same province. McMahill said any overlap between the suspects in the military remains under investigation. 

The men also rented their respective vehicles used in the attacks from the peer-to-peer service Turo, McMahill confirmed.

“If these turn out to be simply similarities — they’re very strange similarities to have and so we’re not prepared to rule out or rule in anything at this point,” McMahill said in response to a reporter’s question about how investigators are ruling out any connection between the two attackers.  

“There’s lots more left for us to do in this investigation,” he said.

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McMahill said the driver of the Cybertruck had a self-inflicted gunshot wound when he was found inside the vehicle.

Police have not yet established a motive behind Livelsberger’s attack.

“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, that it’s a Tesla vehicle but we don’t have information at this point that definitely … suggests that it was because of [any] particular ideology,” FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans said at the conference.

He added that authorities are investigating leads both domestically and internationally.

Meanwhile, the attack in New Orleans is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the FBI previously said.

Jabbar was carrying an ISIS flag on the truck he used in the attack, per the bureau. The Texas native had pledged allegiance to ISIS on social media shortly before the attack, adding that he had joined the terrorist group prior to the summer of 2024.