'No Definitive Link' Between New Orleans Attack and Tesla Cybertruck Explosion at Trump Hotel: FBI

Authorities said at a Thursday, Jan. 2, press conference that they’ve found “no definitive link” between the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans and a subsequent explosion outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

Referencing the New Orleans attack, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said at the press conference that authorities “do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack.”

The suspect, Raia said, was motivated by ISIS idiology. “This was an act of terrorism,” Raia said, adding that it was a “premeditated and an evil act.”

The deadly Jan. 1 incidents dominated the first news cycle of 2025 as harrowing details from both scenes came to light.

In New Orleans, Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. before exiting the vehicle and exchanging gunfire with police, according to law enforcement. His actions killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more.

Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, was killed by police on the scene. The FBI later revealed that an ISIS flag was found in his vehicle. Raia said at Thursday’s press conference that Jabbar pledged his allegiance to ISIS in social media videos shortly before the attack, and that he had joined the terrorist group prior to the summer of 2024.

Jabbar’s social media videos also showed that the assailant initially planned to harm his own family and friends, but said that doing so wouldn’t sufficiently highlight what Jabbar termed “the war between the believers and the disbelievers,” according to Raia.

Hours later in Las Vegas, around 8:40 a.m. local time, a Tesla Cybertruck suddenly burst into flames outside Trump International Hotel, killing the driver and injuring seven others nearby.

Police announced on Thursday that they believe the vehicle was rented by Army service member Matthew Alan Livelsberger in Colorado and driven to Las Vegas. It was parked in the valet area of the hotel, in front of a glass entrance, at the time that it exploded.

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Questions immediately arose about whether the Cybertruck explosion was a politically motivated attack. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has played an outsized role in President-elect Donald Trump’s White House transition and both men have been strongly defined by their respective brands, which were each visible in the incident.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a press conference that “gasoline canisters,” “camp fuel canisters” and “large firework mortars” were found in the back of the vehicle, contributing to the dramatic blast.

FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz added that federal investigators were considering whether the explosion was an act of terrorism.

While delivering a speech on Wednesday, Jan. 1, President Joe Biden said that police were seeking to determine whether the incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas were linked, though at the time he said there was so far “nothing to report.”