A Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of Trump International Hotel Las Vegasthat killed one person and injured seven others, contained gasoline and camp fuel containers, as well as large fireworks mortars, according to authorities.
Las Vegas sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference Wednesday that investigators know who rented the Colorado-acquired Cybertruck, although they are not prepared to identify that person without 100% certainty.
McMahill also said investigators were able to track the truck through Tesla charging stations. Las Vegas license plate readers first spotted the vehicle around 7:30 a.m., and McMahill said it drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before pulling into the Trump hotel’s valet area.
Within 15 to 20 seconds of arriving at the hotel, the sheriff added, the vehicle exploded.
1 DEAD, 7 INJURED AFTER TESLA CYBER TRUCK EXPLOSION OUTSIDE TRUMP HOTEL IN LAS VEGAS: POLICE
One dead and seven injured after Tesla Cybertruck catches fire outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas (Getty Images/Alcides Antunes)
During the press conference, the sheriff showed video of the truck bed, which showed it was filled with gasoline cans, camp fuel canisters and large fireworks mortars.
But the sheriff also pointed out the exterior of the truck and how it was still completely intact after the explosion.
“The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside the valet because most of the explosion traveled through the truck and back out,” McMahill said. “If you look at that video, you’ll see that the glass doors at the front of the Trump hotel weren’t even broken by the explosion.”
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Las Vegas police responded to a car fire at Trump Tower in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning. (Chris Saad via Storyful)
Although the explosion did not damage the glass doors, seven people suffered minor injuries and were taken to a nearby hospital.
All guests at the hotel were accommodated by another hotel while the investigation into the explosion continued.
Such as McMahill, Jeremy Schwartz, the FBI Acting Special Agent in charge in Las Vegas would not identify the person in the vehicle, saying, “Our primary goal is to ensure that we have proper identification of the subject involved in the incident.”
The second goal, Schwartz said, was to determine whether the explosion was an act of terrorism, which is being investigated by a joint terrorism task force.
An investigator photographs a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel on January 1, 2025 in Las Vegas. At least one person was killed and seven injured when a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a hotel of newly-elected US President Donald Trump in Las Vegas, police said on Wednesday. (Photo by WADE VANDERVORT/AFP via Getty Images)
The special agent said the task force is made up of law enforcement officers from the area.
“We don’t do anything together, and we wouldn’t do anything alone without our partners making sure we’re all on the same page,” Schwartz said. “We have learned from past mistakes and we are not going to do that again.”
The Cybertruck explosion was the second suspected fatal incident in a major city since early 2025.
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Investigators head to the scene after a person previously drove a vehicle into a crowd at Canal and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Early Wednesday morning, a man later identified as Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street, killing more than a dozen people and injuring dozens of others.
The truck Din Jabbar was driving was rented from the peer-to-peer car rental company Turo, as was the Cybertruck that caught fire in Las Vegas. Din Jabbar’s rented vehicle also had an ISIS flag on the tow bar.
A spokesperson for Turo told Fox News Digital that the company does not believe the tenants in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had criminal backgrounds that would have identified them as a security threat.
“We are heartbroken by the violence in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families,” the spokesperson said. “We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and security technologies and teams, including experienced former law enforcement professionals.”
Schwartz said the FBI believes the Las Vegas explosion was an isolated incident.
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Investigators photograph a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel on January 1, 2025 in Las Vegas. At least one person was killed and seven injured when a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a hotel of newly-elected US President Donald Trump in Las Vegas, police said on Wednesday. (Photo by WADE VANDERVORT/AFP via Getty Images)
“We don’t believe there’s a group of people supporting or helping this, and we don’t believe there’s any other danger to the community at this time,” he said, reassuring the community that in the coming hours and days they will do whatever they can to get to the bottom of the incident.
McMahill said he didn’t know if the two were connected, but he wouldn’t rule it out. He also said the Cybertruck did not have an ISIS flag like the truck in New Orleans, but that every aspect is being investigated.
The preliminary investigation to date has involved input from Tesla CEO Elon Muskwhich according to McMahill provided quite a bit of information about how the vehicle became locked after it exploded due to the force of the explosion.
Musk also helped capture surveillance footage of Tesla charging stations across the country.
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The billionaire kept followers on his social media platform X updated on the Cybertruck explosion.
“We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the back of the rented Cybertruck and is not related to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote. in one message.
“The evil fools chose the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards,” he said in another post. “Even the glass doors of the lobby were not broken.”
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President Biden also weighed in on the Las Vegas explosion.
“We are monitoring the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas,” he said while speaking about the fatal crash in New Orleans. “Law enforcement and the intelligence community are also investigating this, including whether there is a possible connection to the attack in New Orleans. So far there is nothing to report about this at this time.”
