The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that caught fire and exploded in Las Vegas outside one of the hotels in Donald Trump’s business empire has been identified as soldier Matthew Livelsberger, who is either an active member or veteran of the US army, from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Livelsberger, 37, was killed in the explosion, while seven bystanders were wounded. The military veteran, identified by Denver’s KOAA and KTNV media outlets, was behind the wheel of the electric-powered truck, which investigators soon after discovered was packed with fireworks-style mortars, camping fuel and gas canisters when it exploded on Wednesday morning.

Law enforcement sources confirmed to local news outlets that the electric vehicle was rented from Turo, the vehicle-sharing service that was also used in the New Orleans attack on the same day. There, suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar used the Turo app to rent an electric Ford pickup truck used in that attack in the early hours of New Year’s Day, which killed 15 and injured dozens more.

News station Denver 7 cited law enforcement sources on Thursday that Livelsberger and Jabbar had served at the same military base – a possible connection the US army has not independently confirmed to the Guardian.

CNN’s Pentagon reporter cited multiple US officials who said that Livelsberger was earlier described as a military veteran but later on Thursday morning it was reported that he is an active-duty special forces operations sergeant, who was on leave from Germany where he was serving with 10th SFG, according to several media outlets, including CNN, citing multiple unnamed US officials.

Authorities were investigating the link as a possible connection between the two New Year’s Day attacks, those sources told the outlet.

The FBI is conducting operations and searches in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in relation to the Cybertruck explosion, sources told ABC News, with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Investigators are following leads in at least four states and overseas, sources said.

In a national address on Wednesday, Joe Biden said that ongoing investigations into the New Orleans attack were “fluid”. The president added that law enforcement officials were investigating whether the Bourbon Street attack was related at all to the Las Vegas Tesla vehicle explosion.

Footage shows Tesla packed with fireworks and gas canisters outside Trump hotel – video

No such connection had yet been uncovered, Biden said, and he pledged to keep Americans updated “contemporaneously” as the investigation progresses.

Livelsberger served for more than 19 years in the army – 18 of which were spent with special forces, according to his LinkedIn profile. His most recent role was listed as a remote and autonomous systems manager, which he had been in for just three months.

Jabbar enlisted in the army in March 2007, working in both human resources and information technology, and was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, then transferred into the US army reserve in 2015. He served until July 2020 and left the military with the rank of staff sergeant.

The Trump hotel was not damaged in the explosion. The Tesla founder, Elon Musk, later posted on X that “the evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”

Colorado Springs addresses connected to Livelsberger were staked out and later raided by FBI agents on Wednesday.

Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas metropolitan police department, confirmed at a news conference that the truck used in the attack was rented from Turo in Colorado and driven to Nevada.

McMahill said investigators were able to track the truck’s journey from Colorado to Las Vegas as the driver stopped at charging stations along the route and that the truck was in front of the hotel for 15 to 20 seconds before it exploded.

The sheriff said Musk helped the investigation by having the truck unlocked after it auto-locked in the blast and by giving investigators video of the suspect at charging stations along its 800-mile route.

McMahill also addressed the political questions that hang over the Las Vegas incident. “It’s a Tesla truck. And 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,” he said.

A Turo spokesperson said in a statement: “We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents. We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.”

Musk said on Wednesday afternoon on X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”

In an earlier post on the platform after attending a New Year’s Eve party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Musk said: “The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now. We’ve never seen anything like this.”