Texas capital police warn of sophisticated ‘serial bomber’
AUSTIN, Texas — Anxious Texans huddled inside their homes Monday as investigators scrambled for clues at the scene of another mysterious explosion here, the fourth in a string of attacks this month that authorities say are the work of a sophisticated “serial bomber” who has been terrorizing this city with increasingly complex devices.
The latest blast, which injured two men walking through a residential area Sunday night, marked an escalation in both the tactics and skills displayed by the bomber or bombers, police said. While the three previous bombs were hidden in packages delivered to people’s homes, the fourth device was left on the side of the road and was rigged with a tripwire, showing “a higher level of sophistication, a higher level of skill,” said Brian Manley, the interim Austin police chief.
“What we have seen now is a significant change from what appeared to be three very targeted attacks to what was, last night, an attack that would have hit a random victim that happened to walk by,” Manley said at a news briefing. “So we’ve definitely seen a change in the method.”
Manley said the fourth device had “similarities” with the three bombs that detonated in the Texas capital earlier this month, killing two people and injuring two others, one seriously. The explosion Sunday night plunged the city further into a frightening mystery that has left residents on edge as authorities have seemed at a loss to explain who could be setting off these devices.
The first three explosives all hit the eastern part of Austin, affecting areas where black and Latino residents live, prompting some to question whether the initial blast would have prompted more urgency had it gone off in a more affluent, predominantly white neighborhood.
“This is a public threat,” Nelson Linder, president of NAACP’s Austin chapter, said Monday. “Now that the geography has changed, it’s going to widen people’s perspectives. Nobody can take this lightly; we’re all vulnerable.”
Linder added: “Like they tell us in the military, when you walk, look down at where you’re walking.”
Police have declined to describe the bombs in detail, saying only they appear to be the sophisticated work of a person or people who know what they are doing, and noting that whoever is responsible has been able to assemble and deliver these packages without setting them off. After telling residents to remain wary of unexpected or suspicious packages, authorities were now urging broader caution.
“We’re even more concerned now that if people see something suspicious, they just stay away from it altogether and contact law enforcement,” said Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge of the Houston division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “Because if they move that package or if they step on that tripwire, it’s likely to detonate.”
“It appears that no one is safe, and I’m very fearful for our community,” said Richard Herrington, 75 .