Package found in Austin bombings investigation may be break in case
Investigators, including FBI officers, rope off a Fedex Office store located in the Southwest Austin suburb of Sunset Valley on Tuesday.
AUSTIN, Texas – As a string of bombings continued Tuesday near the Texas capital, authorities recovered what could be the first crucial break in the case – an intact package containing an explosive device that may have been sent out for delivery by a suspected serial bomber.
The package was retrieved by authorities after an early-morning explosion at a Fedex facility 60 miles south of Austin, the fifth in a series of bombings this month that have left two people dead, four others injured and rattled a city known for its urban cool.
Late Tuesday, somebody set off a device in a donation box at a Goodwill store in southern Austin, seriously injuring a man in his 30s, authorities said.
The Austin Police Department said on Twitter that it was not a bomb but an incendiary device, and that authorities had no reason to believe the incident was related to the package bombs. Designed to start fires, incendiary devices do not explode but release their energy more slowly.
Scott Stewart, a former investigator for the U.S. State Department and now a vice president of a global security firm, said the discovery of the intact package could be a “gold mine” for investigators. Even a sophisticated explosives expert, he said, could leave behind telltale signs such as hair and fibers while assembling a device.
The tactics in the bombings have shifted since the first explosion. Initially the bombs were left on front porches, then alongside a roadway with a tripwire attached, then shipped through Fedex. The explosion early Tuesday occurred as the package was being moved along a conveyor belt, being readied for delivery.
The bombings have reverberated across the nation.
“This is obviously a very, very sick individual, or maybe individuals ... and we will get to the bottom of it,” President Donald Trump said from the White House.
Rep. Michael Mccaul, a Republican from Texas, said the latest incidents could provide investigators with significant new evidence such as fingerprints and surveillance photos, which might lead to an arrest. “This is terrorizing the city of Austin right now,” Mccaul said, calling the serial bombing inquiry “probably the biggest investigation since the Boston bombings.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Twitter that “there is no apparent nexus to terrorism at this time.”
The package that exploded Tuesday was apparently bound for an address in Austin. It detonated shortly after midnight at a facility in Schertz, located between the capital and San Antonio.