BREAKING NEWS out of Austin:
Austin American-Statesman (“BREAKING: Austin bombing suspect dies as police close in, official says“):
A man whom authorities were attempting to arrest early Wednesday in a string of bombing attacks in Austin killed himself with an explosive device as authorities closed in, a high-ranking law enforcement official told the American-Statesman early today.
The official said authorities identified a suspect in the past 24 hours based largely on information gained after police said the suspect shipped an explosive device from a FedEx store in Southwest Austin. That evidence included security video.
Authorities also relied upon store receipts showing suspicious transactions from the person and obtained a search warrant for his Google search history that showed him conducting searches they considered suspicious, the official said.
Authorities relied upon cell phone technology to trace the suspect to a hotel in Williamson County, the official said.
Four bombs have exploded in Austin since March 2, killing two men and injuring four people. A fifth bomb exploded early Tuesday at a FedEx distribution center in Schertz, 60 miles south of Austin. A package containing what was believed to be an unexploded bomb was found Tuesday at a FedEx distribution center in Austin. Authorities believe the FedEx packages were sent from a FedEx retail store in the Southwest Austin suburb of Sunset Valley.
If all of the bombs originated with the same person, the use of FedEx represented a major shift in the bomber’s methods and a major break for authorities. The first three Austin bombs were left overnight on doorsteps and were not delivered by commercial delivery services, authorities have said. The fourth bomb was left next to a street in a residential subdivision and was triggered by a trip wire strung over a sidewalk.
Given that he blew himself up with explosives, one presumes he was indeed involved in this crime spree. One hopes that he was acting alone and responsible for the FedEx bomb as well. If so, authorities will presumably have a theory of the case soon if they don’t already.
