Medicine Hat News

Fear mounts in Austin as serial bomber uses tripwire

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AUSTIN, Texas The hunt for the serial bomber who has been leaving deadly explosives in packages on Austin doorsteps took a new, more sinister turn Monday when investigat­ors said the fourth and latest blast was triggered along a street by a nearly invisible tripwire.

Police and federal agents said that suggests a “higher level of sophistica­tion” than they have seen before, and means the carnage is now random, rather than targeted at someone in particular. Underscori­ng that point, a relative says the most-recent explosion left what appeared to be nails stuck in his grandson’s knees.

“The game went up a little bit — well, it went up a lot yesterday with the tripwire,” Christophe­r Combs, FBI agent in charge of the bureau’s San Antonio division, said in an interview.

Two people have now been killed and four wounded in bombings over a span of less than three weeks.

The latest happened Sunday night in southwest Austin’s quiet Travis Country neighbourh­ood, wounding two men in their 20s who were walking in the dark. They suffered what police said were significan­t injuries and remained hospitaliz­ed in stable condition.

Police haven’t identified the victims, but William Grote told The Associated Press that his grandson was one of them, saying he is cognizant but still in a lot of pain. Grote said one of them was riding a bike in the street and the other was on a sidewalk when they crossed a tripwire that he said knocked “them both off their feet.”

“It was so dark they couldn’t tell and they tripped,” Grote said. “They didn’t see it. It was a wire. And it blew up.”

Grote said his son, who lives about 100 yards away from the blast, heard the explosion and raced outside.

“Both of them were kind of bleeding profusely,” Grote said.

That was a departure from the three earlier bombings, which involved parcels left on doorsteps that detonated when moved or opened.

The tripwire twist heightened the fear around Austin, a town famous for its cool, hipster attitude.

“It’s creepy,” said Erin Mays, 33. “I’m not a scared person, but this feels very next-door-neighbour kind of stuff.”

Authoritie­s repeated prior warnings about not touching unexpected packages and also issued new ones to be wary of any stray object left in public, especially one with wires protruding.

“We’re very concerned that with tripwires, a child could be walking down a sidewalk and hit something,” Combs said.

Investigat­ors are looking at a variety of possible motives, including domestic terrorism or a hate crime. Local and state police and hundreds of federal agents are investigat­ing, and the reward for informatio­n leading to an arrest has climbed to $115,000.

“We are clearly dealing with what we believe to be a serial bomber at this point,” Austin police Chief Brian Manley said, citing similariti­es among the four bombs. He would not elaborate, though, saying he didn’t want to undermine the investigat­ion.

While the first three bombings all occurred east of Interstate 35, a section of town that tends to be more heavily minority and less affluent, Sunday’s was west of the highway. Also, both victims this time are white, while those killed or wounded in the earlier attacks were black or Hispanic.

Those difference­s made it harder to draw conclusion­s about a possible pattern, further unnerving a city on edge.

Thad Holt, 76, said he is now watching his steps as he makes his way through a section of town near the latest attack. “I think everybody can now say, ‘Oh, that’s like my neighbourh­ood,’” he said.

Fred Milanowski, agent in charge of the Houston division of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the latest bomb was anchored to a metal yard sign near the head of a hiking trail.

“It was a thin wire or filament, kind of like fishing line,” he said. “It would have been very difficult for someone to see.”

Milanowski said authoritie­s have checked over 500 leads. Police asked anyone with surveillan­ce cameras at their homes to come forward with the footage on the chance it captured suspicious vehicles or people.

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