Texas bomb suspect died after ‘blowing himself up’ say police
The suspect in a series of bombing attacks that have terrorised the Texan city of Austin over the past few weeks blew himself up yesterday as law enforcement closed in on him. Authorities warned of concern that more explosives might still be out there.
The suspect was identified as Mark Anthony Conditt, an unemployed 24-year-old who had attended a local community college. His motive remained a mystery, along with whether he acted alone in the five bombings in the Texas capital and suburban San Antonio that killed two people and wounded four others.
Authorities had zeroed in on Conditt in the last 24 to 36 hours and located his vehicle at a hotel on Interstate 35 in the suburb of Round Rock, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference. They were waiting for ballistic vehicles to arrive to move in for an arrest when his vehicle began to drive away, Manley said. Authorities followed the vehicle, which ran into a ditch on the side of the road, the police chief said.
When members of the SWAT team approached, Conditt 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.
Austin has been targeted by four package bombings since 2 March that killed two people and seriously wounded four others. A fifth parcel bomb detonated at a Fedex distribution centre near San Antonio early on Tuesday.
Authorities yesterday warned of the possibility that more bombs had yet to be found.
“We don’t know where this suspect has spent his last 24 hours and therefore we still need to remain vigilant to ensure that no other packages or devices have been left to the community,” Manley said.
Manley said the suspect is believed to be responsible for all the major Austin bombings. Authorities also said they didn’t know his motive.
Fred Milanowski, an agent with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said it was “hard to say” if the bombing suspect had acted alone.
“What we do know is we believe the same person built each one of these devices,” said Milanowski, the agent in charge of the Houston division of the ATF. “We are not 100 percent convinced there’s not other devices out there.”
Mayor Steve Adler thanked law enforcement for their work in bringing down the suspect and urged residents to continue to report anything that appeared suspicious or out of place.
“We’re just really relieved and just incredibly thankful for this army of law enforcement that has been in our community here for the last week or so,” he told NBC.