Suspect in Austin bombing attacks blows himself up

ROUND ROCK (AP) — The suspect in a spate of bombing attacks that have killed two people and injured four others this month blew himself up with an explosive device as authorities closed in, the city police said yesterday.

Authorities had zeroed in on the suspect in the last 24 to 36 hours and located him at a hotel on Interstate 35 in the Austin suburb of Round Rock, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference. They were waiting for ballistic vehicles to arrive when his vehicle began to drive away, Manley said. Authorities followed the vehicle, which stopped in a ditch on the side of the road, the police chief said.

When members of the SWAT team approached, the suspect detonated an explosive device inside the vehicle, the police chief said. The blast knocked back one officer, while a second officer fired his weapon, Manley said.

The suspect, who suffered significant injuries from the blast, was killed. Authorities identified him only as a 24-yearold white man.

Authorities said it was too soon to say if the suspect had worked alone. They also said they don’t know his motive.

Earlier yesterday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that federal and local authorities had converged on an area where the bombing suspect was holed up in the capital city.

“ATF is with (at) Austin_Police and (at)FBIS an Antonio on I-35 at the scene of the individ- ual suspected in the (hash) package bomb murders,’’ the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tweeted.

Police in Austin tweeted that they were working an officer-involved shooting on Interstate 35.

On Tuesday, a bomb inside a package exploded around 1 a.m. as it passed along a conveyer belt at a FedEx shipping center in Schertz, northeast of San Antonio and about 95 kilometers southwest of Austin. One worker reported ringing in her ears and was treated at the scene.

Later in the morning, police sent a bomb squad to a FedEx facility outside the Austin airport to check on a suspicious package. Federal agencies and police later said that package had indeed contained an explosive that was successfully intercepted and that it, too, was tied to the other bombings.

Authorities also closed off an Austin-area FedEx store where they believe the bomb that exploded in Schertz was shipped. They roped off a large area around the shopping center and were collecting evidence.

The Schertz blast came two days after a bombing wounded two men Sunday night in an Austin neighborhood, about five kilometers from the FedEx store. It was triggered by a nearly invisible tripwire, suggesting a “higher level of sophistication’’ than agents saw in three package bombs previously left on doorsteps, according to Fred Milanowski, the agent in charge of the Houston division of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.