Bombings in Texas seen as related, possibly racially motivated.
AUSTIN, Texas — Two package bomb blasts a few miles apart killed a teenager and wounded two women in Austin on Monday, less than two weeks after a similar attack left a man dead in another part of the Texas capital.
Investigators said the bombings are probably connected, and they are looking into whether race was a factor because all of the victims were minorities.
The first of Monday’s attacks killed a 17-yearold boy and wounded a 40-year-old woman, both of them black. As Police Chief Brian Manley held a news conference to discuss that attack, authorities were called to the scene of another explosion that injured a 75-year-old Latino woman. She was taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening wounds.
Authorities suspect that both of Monday’s explosions were linked to a March 2 attack that killed a 39-year-old black man, and they urged the public to call police if they receive any unexpected packages.
“This is the third in what we believe to be related incidents over the past 10 days,” Manley said while briefing reporters near the site of Monday’s second explosion. He at first suggested that the blasts could constitute a hate crime, but later amended that to say authorities had not settled on a motive and could not rule anything out.
Manley said the intended targets were not clear since multiple people live in the homes where explosives were placed. “We are willing to investigate any avenue that may be involved,” he said.
The police chief declined to elaborate about the explosives, citing the ongoing investigation. But he said they were an “average size letter box” and “not particularly large.” In all three cases, he said, the packages did not appear to have gone through the U.S. Postal Service or private carriers like UPS but were left on doorsteps without a knock or ringing of doorbells.
The blasts unfolded just as the city was swelling with visitors to the South by Southwest music festival. The explosions happened far from the main events, which draw about 400,000 visitors to Austin each year. The police chief urged visitors to “be aware of what’s going on.”
In a tweet, organizers of the festival said “SXSW is heartbroken by the explosions in Austin,” and they urged visitors to stay safe. Gov. Greg Abbott offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
The three explosions occurred in different parts of east Austin. Monday’s first blast happened at a home in Springdale Hills, a leafy neighborhood of houses mostly from the 1960s and 1970s.
That was about 12 miles from the home where the March 2 package bomb killed 39-yearold Anthony Stephan House. House’s death was initially investigated as suspicious but is now viewed as a homicide.
The day’s second explosion occurred around the Montopolis neighborhood, about 5 miles south of the day’s first blast.
FBI teams from Austin, San Antonio and Dallas were investigating, as was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Manley said anyone receiving a package they were not expecting should call 911.
The victims in Monday’s blasts were not immediately identified.