Serial bomber mixing up his tactics
SCHERTZ, Texas — The latest in a wave of bombings rattling central Texas brought a widening investigation to this city outside San Antonio on Tuesday, after an explosion at a FedEx facility signaled that whoever was responsible for the attacks had offered police potentially critical new clues while again shifting tactics.
The blast early Tuesday — the fifth since March 2 — came as investigators have struggled to explain the bombing campaign that began with a series of packages placed at people’s doorsteps in east Austin, escalated to a tripwireenabled device left along a residential street and, on Tuesday, shifted to an explosive device shipped through a delivery company.
The same person who shipped that explosive also sent another package that was intercepted before delivery and was turned over to the FBI, according to FedEx. Federal officials confirmed that package also contained an explosive device.
In addition, a bomb blast was reported Tuesday night at a Goodwill store in the southern part of the city, but the Austin Police Department and federal authorities eventually ruled that it wasn’t caused by a package bomb, as initially reported, but by an incendiary device. They said it was not related to the other bombs that have rocked Texas’ capital city.
One man in his 30s was An employee wrapped in a blanket talks to a police officer after she was evacuated from a FedEx distribution center where a package exploded Tuesday in Schertz, Texas.
injured, and authorities evacuated a grocery store and shopping center nearby.
Regarding the other bombs, police have described the unknown attacker as a “serial bomber” who has been showing increasing sophistication and skill. The two explosions on Sunday and early Tuesday also suggested a worrisome — and unusual — willingness to change gears.
The bomb in Schertz exploded just after midnight while it traveled on an automated conveyor belt at a FedEx center about an hour south of Austin, the city that has been the focus of the blasts. One employee at the center said it caused ringing in her ears, but no one else was wounded, police said.
The package was en route
to Austin, according to police, and officials said they think it was the work of the same person or persons responsible for the four earlier explosions in Austin. Michael Hansen, the Schertz police chief, said investigators are “confident that neither this facility nor any location in the Schertz area was the target.”
FedEx also said Tuesday that by using the delivery service, the person who shipped the packages left “extensive evidence,” which the company turned over to investigators.
“We have also confirmed that the individual responsible also shipped a second package that has now been secured and turned over to law enforcement,” FedEx said in a statement. “We are
thankful that there were no serious injuries from this criminal activity.”
In a statement Tuesday evening, the Austin police, the FBI and the ATF confirmed that the package found in Austin that morning “contained an explosive device (that) was disrupted by law enforcement. No injuries were reported.”
The discovery of an unexploded device linked to the case could prove crucial because it could lead to the identity of a suspect or suspects; the materials used to assemble a bomb can be traced back to a supplier — and, in many cases, the individual purchaser.
The suspect “is not stupid. He’s being diversified in his methods and attacks, and may have done this before somewhere,’’ said Malcolm Brady, a retired AFT explosives investigator. But each new device — and delivery method — offers new potential leads, such as business records, video or other evidence.
Investigators on Tuesday also searched a FedEx facility in Austin — where the package that detonated in Schertz probably would have been sent next — looking for other package bombs there, according to one person familiar with the investigation.
The package that detonated early Tuesday is believed to have been sent from a FedEx location in Sunset Valley, an enclave city within Austin, police said.
The police department cordoned off the FedEx storefront — located three miles from the site where a bomb, rigged with a tripwire, detonated Sunday night — but neighboring stores in the shopping center were open.
All four explosions in Austin have occurred outside the city’s core, which includes downtown, the Texas Capitol and the University of Texas.
The investigation now includes more than 300 federal agents along with scores of local law enforcement officers in Texas.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the federal government is working “hand in hand” with local authorities to “get to the bottom” of the bombings in Austin and find those responsible.