A former FBI special agent is calling on Americans to exercise caution when attending major national events after two back-to-back fatal incidents on New Year’s Day.
“Unfortunately, we’re going to continue to see these types of events happening, whether they’re ISIS-inspired or radical Islamic terrorist events, or whether they’re mass shootings, or whether they’re the CEO of an individual at UnitedHealthcare who just lost his life. ” spirit,” Nicole Parker, former FBI special agent and Fox News contributor, explained to Fox News Digital.
“With a lot of these events coming up, there’s going to be a lot of activity with large gatherings and large groups of people.”
Parker’s warnings come after a man identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing more than a dozen people and injuring dozens.
Matthew Livelsberger rented a Tesla Cybertruck in Denver, Colorado, which exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day. (Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS, left and Fox News, right.)
Hours after that deadly attack, a Tesla Cybertruck was blown up on our doorstep Trump Hotel Las Vegas, leading to fear and chaos to start 2025.
Parker said that while these two events have been shocking and devastating, there has been a build-up of menace in our nation since the Hamas terrorist attacks on the Jewish State on October 7, 2023.
“There’s been a lot of activity leading up to this moment. I would say that for our country, starting on October 7, from a terrorism perspective, things definitely changed,” Parker said.
“I think there was a lot of activity going on in the Middle East. A lot of these terrorist groups that people thought were gone, which honestly, they were. Many of them were under the Trump administration. And after the unrest in the Middle East, the Middle East, I think it almost sparked a lot of activity and chatter,” she continued.
WHO IS MATTHEW LIVELSBERGER? WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SUSPECTED TESLA CYBER TRUCK EXPLOSION
“I think in the US, especially under the Biden administration, they’ve been so focused on domestic terrorism from homegrown violent extremists, on white supremacy, that they said that was the biggest threat. There is a lot of activity. And as Christopher Wray said, alarms are going off.”
Parker unfortunately said that after what we saw happen in Las Vegas and New Orleans, it is not a matter of if, but only of when the next attack might occur.
‘We also have to deal with the opponents in our country. But in the coming weeks, the coming months, there’s going to be a lot of big, big events happening. And those are events where people who want to cause havoc and hurt others, they do it to get attention. They want to cause the greatest destruction possible,” Parker explained, highlighting the Super Bowl, the College Football National Championship, which also falls on the same day. The inauguration of President-elect Trump.
The FBI and Las Vegas Police, along with other agencies, continue to investigate and determine what led the person of interest, 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, a U.S. Army Special Operations soldier from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to die Tuesday morning blowing up a Cybertruck in front of the Trump Las Vegas hotel.
INVESTIGATES USE TATTOO AND PHOTOS TO IDENTIFY SUSPECT BEHIND CYBERTRUCK EXPLOSION AT TRUMP HOTEL
Several guests who were staying at the hotel when it all unfolded described to Fox News Digital the chaos and mess that unfolded in the hours after the explosion.
“I had actually already taken my dogs to go to the bathroom, and then I came back to my hotel. I fed them and said, ‘Okay, let’s go back out.’ I just missed the guy. At 8:48 p.m. I walk through that door with my dogs a few times a day,” Laurie Parent told Fox News Digital, narrowly missing the explosion.
“In the morning, when I woke up, I heard something… it sounded like people were cleaning the windows. And I heard a popping sound. And I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ And then all of a sudden I heard all these police sirens and stuff. So I looked out the window and I saw smoke coming out of a window because we were in the corner room upstairs on the 23rd floor,” Carlos Reyes told what it was. like in the hotel.
One dead and seven injured after Tesla Cybertruck catches fire outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas (Getty Images/Alcides Antunes)
“It’s surreal. We (Chris and his wife) walked out here, and you can still see (the Cybertruck) was on fire. There was a lot of smoke coming in… it was scary,” said Chris Petrotta, a hotel guest . in celebration of his anniversary, described.
Parker reiterated that these attacks are important reminders to remain vigilant and aware of your surroundings and to contact police if you see or hear anything suspicious.
“Remember that the public is part of the solution because when these individuals, whether they’re terrorists, violent perpetrators or mass shooters, there’s often something called leakage, where they give some kind of indication that they’re going to do something before they actually do it,” Parker said.
Parker said Americans should not live in fear, but should use common sense at major events and even in everyday life.
“We can’t let violent criminals win, we can’t live in fear. But you also have to be aware of your surroundings and listen to your feelings. And unfortunately I hate to say this, but this won’t stop,” said Parker. .
“Unfortunately, this is just the society we live in. And of course you have to take certain measures to limit the risks.”
Investigators are looking at the contents of a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Press Conference)
She added that she, like many Americans, is excited about Trump taking office soon, but that things won’t change overnight until real progress is made by elected officials and even within the FBI.
“Look, I love President Trump. But unfortunately, many of these things will become reality under President Trump, because these are people sitting here quietly. We never know when they will implode. So all these people coming across the border, I don’t know when they’re going to take action, just like on September 11th. You don’t know what day they’re going to operate, what day they’re going to operate decide this is the time we’re going to do it,” Parker continued.
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The authorities are still there working to establish a motive and investigate whether Livelsberger’s actions constituted an act of terror.
“It is not lost on us that it is in front of the Trump building, that it is a Tesla vehicle, but we do not have any information at this time that definitively tells us or suggests that it was because of this specific ideology,” Spencer Evans said. the Las Vegas FBI special agent in charge.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected]
