The vehicles used in two separate incidents, the deadly New Orleans attack and explosion in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, were rented via the same app, a peer-to-peer service called Turo, the company said.
Authorities are looking into several parallels between the incidents, including that both involved trucks — a Ford pickup in New Orleans and Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas — were rented from Turo and occured on New Year’s Day. Both also involved U.S.-born military servicemen who served in Afghanistan around the same timeframe.
But on Thursday, an FBI official, Christopher Raia, said that at this point, there’s “no definitive link” between the two occurences.
In an email to CBS News, a Turo spokesperson said the company is “actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents.”
They added, “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.”
Turo operates similarly to Airbnb, but with cars instead of houses or apartments. Car owners who aren’t using their vehicles can rent them out to others via the app, which handles screening, billing and other services. In some cases, individuals have become “professional hosts” by renting out fleets of cars via Turo, according to a company filing.
Here’s what to know about Turo.
How many people use Turo?
Turo, which started in 2009, had about 150,000 active hosts who rented out about 350,000 vehicles as of Sept. 30, according to the company’s filing. About 3.5 million people rented those cars in the 12-month period through the end of September, it added.
The car rental service operates in 16,000 cities in the U.S., Australia, France, the U.K. and Canada.
How do you rent a car on Turo?
Turo says that in order to use its service, individuals need an email address, Google account or Apple ID, and a valid driver’s license. Renters must also provide a home address and payment card.
Customers must be at least 18 years old to rent a car on Turo, or over 25 for more expensive vehicles. For instance, to rent a “deluxe” car — those valued between $45,000 to $85,000 — drivers must be older than 25. “Super deluxe” cars, or those valued over $85,000, are limited to people over 30.
Does Turo screen people who rent cars?
On its website, Turo says “We may ask for additional photos and information and/or may check your personal and/or business credit report, auto insurance score, and criminal background to verify your account.”
The man who drove the Ford truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges tied to driving under the influence (DUI), according to CNN. Turo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on whether their screening flagged the DUI incident.
In the state of Louisiana, a DUI offense is considered a felony on third and subsequent convictions, according to Louisiana Court Records, although first-time DUI offenders can face felony charges in instances where a death or violation of child endangerment laws is involved.
Turo also says it relies on its proprietary “risk score” to assess potential renters, which relies on “more than 50 data inputs,” such as information submitted by customers as well as parameters set by the car owner.
“The Turo Risk Score takes a broad view of risk to account for an array of undesirable outcomes,” the filing noted.
Who are the men who rented the cars used in the attacks?
The driver in the New Orleans attack, Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S.-born citizen from Texas, was a U.S. Army veteran who lived in Houston. The FBI said he posted several videos before the attack proclaiming his support for ISIS.
Jabbar rented a Ford electric pickup truck from Turo in Houston on Dec. 30, 2024, and drove the vehicle to New Orleans on Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, he bypassed barriers put in place on Bourbon Street, which included patrol cars and law enforcement, before plowing onto the sidewalk, according to police officials. The attack killed at least 14 people and injured dozens.
In the second Jan. 1 occurrence, Matthew Alan Livelsberger, an active-duty U.S. Army Special Forces intelligence sergeant who was serving in Germany but on leave in Colorado at the time of the incident, rented a Tesla Cybertruck from Turo.
That Cybertruck, a 2024 model that had been rented in Colorado, pulled up to the Trump hotel’s glass entrance doors on Wednesday morning, officials said. Smoke began emerging from the vehicle, and then a large explosion occurred. Gasoline and camp fuel canisters and large firework mortars were found in the back of the vehicle after the explosion, which occurred about 15 seconds after the vehicle pulled in front of the building.
The Cybertruck explosion, which is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, killed the driver of the car and injured seven people outside of the vehicle.
Officials have not been able to confirm the identity of the body which is “burnt beyond recognition,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a briefing Thursday. Investigators said Livelsberger’s military ID, passport and credit cards were found in the vehicle, along with several firearms.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X, his social media app, that the vehicle’s structure helped limit the damage.
“The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack,” wrote Musk. “Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”
