Bomber’s confession from beyond grave
THE Texas man who carried out a three-week bombing spree made a 25-minute video “confession” on his phone, which was recovered after he blew himself up as police were closing in to make an arrest, police say.
Mark Anthony Conditt, an unemployed college dropout who bought bomb-making materials at Home Depot, recorded the video hours before he died after detonating one of his own devices as SWAT teams closed in.
It seemed to indicate the 23year-old knew he was about to be caught, said Austin Police Chief Brian Manley. “He does not at all mention anything about terrorism, nor does he mention anything about hate, but instead it is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his own life,” Mr Manley said of the recording, which authorities declined to release.
Conditt was tracked down using store surveillance video, mobile phone signals and witness accounts of a customer shipping packages in a disguise that included a blond wig and gloves.
Police finally found him at a hotel in a suburb north of Ausran tin. Officers prepared to move in for an arrest. When the suspect’s SUV began to drive away, they followed. Conditt into a ditch on the side of the road, and SWAT officers approached, banging on his window. Within seconds, the suspect had detonated a bomb inside his vehicle, blasting the officers backward, Mr Manley said. One officer then fired his weapon at Conditt.
The medical examiner has not finalised the cause of death, but the bomb caused “significant” injuries, he said.
Law enforcement officials did not immediately say whether Conditt acted alone in the five bombings in the Texas capital and suburban San Antonio that killed two people and badly wounded four others.
Conditt’s family released a statement saying they had “no idea of the darkness that Mark must have been in”.
His uncle, Mike Courtney, said his nephew was a “computer geek” who was intelligent and kind.
Austin was hit with four bombings starting on March 2. The first explosions were from packages left on doorsteps. Then a bomb with a tripwire was placed near a public trail.
A fifth parcel bomb detonated at a FedEx distribution centre near San Antonio.