Screenshots shared by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department show Matthew Livelsberger had written several messages on his phone’s Notes app. In one, the decorated U.S. soldier said Americans would pay attention only to “spectacles and violence.” In another, Livelsberger said he needed to “relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”
The writings and new details about his time in the military and his actions in the days leading to the explosion paint a picture of a man haunted by his experiences overseas and closer to home. Investigators said they do not think he held any grievances against President-elect
Donald Trump, and instead pointed to his deteriorating mental state to explain the explosion.
Traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress are the signature wounds of the recent U.S. wars, and experts say repeated exposure to blasts big and small damage the neural pathways of the brain, eroding emotional regulation and profoundly damaging a person’s ability to cope with stress.
In severe cases, personalities are transformed. Struggles intensify. Lengthier combat stints elevate the threat of what the Pentagon
calls “one of the invisible wounds of war.”
don't commit violent acts.
