Firework mortars, gas cannisters stuffed inside Tesla that exploded outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel

LAS VEGAS– Fireworks mortars and camp fuel canisters were found in the back of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas early Wednesday, killing a suspect in the vehicle and sparking an intense investigation into possible terrorism.

Officials with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and Clark County Fire Department said one person died in the futuristic-looking pickup and seven people nearby suffered minor injuries.

Late Wednesday afternoon, authorities were still working to get the body out of the vehicle and process the evidence inside. President Joe Biden was briefed on the explosion.

“Our primary goal is to ensure that we have proper identification of the individual involved in this incident,” said Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office. “Then our second goal is to determine whether this was an act of terror or not.”

Sheriff Kevin McMahill said authorities know who rented the truck using the Turo app in Colorado, but will not release the name until investigators determine if it is the same person who died.

McMahill said video taken at Telsa charging stations, provided by CEO Elon Musk, helped authorities track the vehicle’s journey, arriving in Las Vegas around 7:30 a.m. and then pulled into the Trump International Hotel parking lot about an hour later, where it took 15 to 20 seconds for the explosion to occur.

At an afternoon news conference, video was shown showing a flurry of charred fireworks mortars, jerry cans and other explosives in the back of the pickup. The walls of the truck bed were still intact because the explosion shot straight up instead of to the sides.

Musk said on X on Wednesday afternoon 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 not related to the vehicle itself. All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.”

In an earlier post on the platform, Musk said his entire tenure was investigating the explosion, adding: “We’ve never seen anything like it.”

Musk recently joined Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk were in Las Vegas early Wednesday. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at Trump’s estate in South Florida.

Musk spent an estimated $250 million supporting the former president during the presidential campaign. He was at Trump’s resort on election night and was a frequent guest there. Trump has appointed Musk, the world’s richest man, to co-lead a new effort to find ways to reduce the size and spending of government.

“This is a Tesla truck, and we know Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it is Trump Tower,” McMahill said when reporters asked about possible political connections. “So there are clearly things we need to be concerned about and it’s something we’ll continue to look at.”

The truck explosion occurred hours after a driver rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot dead by police. That accident was investigated as a terrorist attack and police believe the driver did not act alone.

“We are absolutely investigating any connection to what happened in New Orleans and to other attacks that have occurred around the world,” McMahill said. “We don’t rule anything out.”

In a statement, Turo said it was cooperating with authorities.

“We do not believe that the tenants involved in the attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans had a criminal background that would have classified them as a security threat,” the statement said.

In Las Vegas, witness Ana Bruce, visiting from Brazil, said she heard three explosions.

“The first one where we saw the fire, the second one, I think, was the battery or something like that, and the third one was the big one that smoked the whole area and was when everyone was told to evacuate and stay away. ” said Bruce.

Her traveling companion, Alcides Antunes, showed video he took of the flames lapping the sides of the silver vehicle.

The 64-story hotel is located near the Las Vegas Strip and across from the Fashion Show Las Vegas Mall.

Eric Trump, son of the newly elected president and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted about the fire on the social media platform X. He praised the fire brigade and local police “for their quick response and professionalism.”

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Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Zeke Miller in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report. Snow reported from Phoenix.