Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters on Thursday that the Cybertruck bomber, Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret, died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head just moments before the detonation outside Trump's hotel in Las Vegas. This sequence of events is based on the official statements from law enforcement. However, speculation on X, particularly among internet sleuths, has brought up alternative theories regarding the timing of Livelsberger's death.
Rogan O'Handley, aka "DC Draino" on X, floated two scenarios about Livelsberger's final moments:
Now that we know the Vegas suspect was found with a bullet in his head, I see 2 possible scenarios:
1. He shot himself - he was planning to commit suicide & didn't want to risk being burned alive
2. He was shot by someone else & the Tesla was auto-pilot navigated to the Trump hotel
Now that we know the Vegas suspect was found with a bullet in his head, I see 2 possible scenarios:
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 2, 2025
1. He shot himself - he was planning to commit suicide & didn’t want to risk being burned alive
2. He was shot by someone else & the Tesla was auto-pilot navigated to the Trump… https://t.co/OqU5ecdy6e
"A long fuse could've been lit, a timer could have been set, or the bomb could have been remotely detonated I wonder if anyone in the vicinity heard a gunshot That would help confirm where the car was when he was shot," O'Handley wrote in another post.
A long fuse could’ve been lit, a timer could have been set, or the bomb could have been remotely detonated
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 2, 2025
I wonder if anyone in the vicinity heard a gunshot
That would help confirm where the car was when he was shot
Tesla's Elon Musk quickly dismissed the second scenario, stating, "Autopilot will not function unless it detects an attentive person in the driver's seat."
Autopilot will not function unless it detects an attentive person in the driver’s seat
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2025
Tesla vehicles have a cabin camera that monitors driver attentiveness and provides audible alerts when FSD is engaged. The camera is mounted above the rearview mirror.
"Like other Autopilot features, Full Self-Driving requires that the driver pay attention to the road, their surroundings, and other road users," Tesla wrote on its website under the "Driver Attentiveness" section of FSD.
Tesla said, "The cabin camera does not require full visibility of the driver's eyes in order to monitor attentiveness. The system is still active, for example, if the driver is wearing sunglasses."
"If the cabin camera does not have clear visibility of the driver's hand and arm locations, Full Self-Driving periodically displays a message reminding the driver to apply slight force to the steering wheel," Tesla continued.
It noted, "If the driver repeatedly ignore prompts to apply slight force to the steering wheel or to pay attention, Full Self-Driving displays a series of escalating warnings and, if those warnings are ignored, disables for the rest of the drive and displays the following message."
What's apparent from Tesla's description of how FSD works suggests any scenario with Livelsberger shot in the head well before the bombing would be extraordinarily hard to trick the camera.
X users should call on Musk to release the cockpit camera footage and any other recordings from the high-tech EV truck to disprove O'Handley's second scenario. Additionally, footage from charging stations could provide valuable insights into what happened leading up to the bombing. We're sure the FBI is already doing this...
