A highly decorated Army soldier who fatally shot himself just before an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck at the Trump hotel in Las Vegas left a note saying it was a stunt to serve as “wake up call” for the country’s ills.

Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, also wrote in notes he left on his cellphone that he needed to “cleanse” his mind “of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.” Livelsberger served in the Army since 2006 and deployed twice to Afghanistan.

“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives,” Livelsberger wrote in one letter found by authorities and released Friday.

    • rambling_lunatic
      4·
      3 days ago

      I cared before too. There is a difference between passively engaging in BDS and pouring your heart and soul into a movement.

      Edit: I felt the need to elaborate.

      For a very long time I followed the boycott and donated what I could. Genocide is atrocious, but what else could I do? I lived in the middle of bumfuck nowhere; There weren’t exactly any movements nearby I could get involved in.

      I then saw a man from bumfuck nowhere drive all the way to the Israeli Embassy and burn himself alive. I realised there was a whole lot of things I could do.

      I also moved to Ireland, so I got a lot more opportunities to act on my sentiments.