LAS VEGAS (Nevada Current) — Clark County, Nevada, Sheriff Kevin McMahill called the apparently intentional New Year’s Day explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Pres.-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel an isolated incident, but says law enforcement is investigating any connection with a suspected terrorism incident that killed at least 15 and injured dozens hours earlier in New Orleans.
McMahill said at a news conference late Wednesday that he doesn’t know if the events in the two tourism capitals are related. “But what I can tell you is we’re absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened with New Orleans, as well as other attacks.”
Musk posted on X that the two vehicles were rented from the same online company.
Pres. Joe Biden, in a televised address Wednesday, confirmed officials are investigating a link between the incidents.
FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeremy Schwartz said the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is made up of federal and local law enforcement, is working to determine the identity of the driver, and whether the explosion was an act of terrorism.
“We believe this is an isolated incident,” Schwartz said. “We do not believe that there’s a bunch of folks out there supporting this or helping, and don’t believe that there’s any other danger to the community right now.”
Law enforcement is also investigating whether the type of vehicle rented and the location of the explosion were intentional.
“It’s a Tesla truck,” McMahill said at the news conference, where he was flanked by state and local officials, including Attorney General Aaron Ford. “We know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump Tower. So there’s obviously things to be concerned about there.”
The bed of the Cybertruck was laden with mortar-style fireworks, gas cans and other explosives, according to McMahill, who says he’s unaware of how they were detonated.
Law enforcement, he said, cannot yet identify the driver “with 100% certainty.” The individual was killed in the blast, which was captured on hotel security video. He also declined to release the name of the individual who rented the truck in Colorado, pending confirmation and notification of relatives.
License plate readers detected the truck in Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, about an hour before it pulled into valet parking at the Trump International Hotel and exploded about 15 seconds later, McMahill said. He thanked Tesla founder Elon Musk for assisting law enforcement by providing information and video from charging stations along the truck’s route from Colorado.
He also praised the vehicle’s engineering, which “limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet” because the force of the blast went upward, not outward, and did not break the hotel entrance’s glass doors.
McMahill said a review of security procedures on the Las Vegas Strip, which hosted some 400,000 New Year’s revelers hours before the blast, is in order.
“We were very successful the night before,” McMahill said.“I’m surprised this happened, to be quite frank with you, and that’s certainly something we’re going to have to look at and target.”
“I just want to make sure that our community understands we believe this would be an isolated incident, and it is now over, as far as the danger,” he said, but added that out of an abundance of caution he’s extending his New Year’s staffing plan of 1,000 officers in the tourism corridor and the community.
Gov. Joe Lombardo, who McMahill succeeded as sheriff, was not at the news conference and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
