BREAKING NEWS: Austin-area bomb suspect kills self in explosion as Austin PD SWAT team closed in!
Police confirmed Wednesday that the suspect in the bombings in Austin that killed two people and wounded several others is dead after setting off a bomb in a hotel parking lot when a SWAT team closed in.
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said the suspect was a 24-year-old white man. His name will be released when his family has been informed. Manley said authorities do not know the motive for the bombings.
One SWAT team member fired a shot at the suspect's vehicle after he set off the bomb in Round Rock, about 20 miles from Austin, early Wednesday.
Austin, a destination city for music fans and barbecue pilgrimages, has long struggled with growth and segregation . Four bombings since March 2 have killed two people and wounded four. A fifth person suffered minor injuries when a package bomb exploded at a FedEx facility early Tuesday in Schertz, near San Antonio. That package was mailed from Austin, linking it to the serial bomber.
Here are the victims.
Bomb 1: Anthony Stephan House, 39
The March 2 explosion that killed Anthony Stephan House, a construction worker and money manager, received little attention at first.
Police described the explosion of a package left on his doorstep as an isolated incident with no continuing threat to the community after House died in a hospital less than an hour after it was reported.
House, remembered by friends as a quiet and motivated man, left behind an 8-year-old daughter. He went to high school in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb, where he ran track and played basketball.
A local man to the end, he graduated from Texas State University, a college down the highway about midway between San Antonio and Austin.
“He wanted to be something different and bigger than what a lot of people thought he was going to do,” Greg Padgitt, a friend from high school, told the Austin-American Statesman. “He was quiet, but jokey with the kids that he let in. He was a great kid.”
House’s stepfather, Freddie Dixon, said House’s daughter was inside the home when the explosion occurred
Bomb 2: Draylen Mason, 17
Before he was killed in a blast on March 10, Draylen Mason was college-bound.
He was involved in the Austin Soundwaves, a music-education program for underserved kids in Central Texas. He took to the stand-up bass and even played in a mariachi band.
“He was amazing, so passionate and very well-rounded,” said junior Eli Hernandez, 17, who described Mason as something of a role model. “Everyone could see he had a bright future with music.
Deflated balloons sway in the wind in the yard of the house where the second bomb went off and killed Draylen Mason, 17, in Austin on March 10. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
Mason caught the eye and ear of Doug Dempster, dean of the University of Texas’s College of Fine Arts in central Austin. Dempster had for years been watching Mason develop not only himself but also students around him. At 17, he stopped and patiently helped his fellow burgeoning musicians in the trade.
“He was every inch a musician . . . the very most remarkable talent in a most remarkable youth orchestra program . . . He carried himself with a kind of quiet maturity that belied his youth,” Dempster said in a statement. He said Mason expected to become a Longhorn in the fall.
And like House, Mason was black. Both lived on the east side of Austin, where gentrification has displaced historically black and Latino neighborhoods.
Bomb 3: Esperanza Herrera, 75 not pictured.
The bomber did not appear to have targeted Esperanza Herrera. But the explosion nearly killed her anyway.
Herrera was visiting her elderly mother’s house and picked up a package that authorities later said was bound for another address. Her mother, Maria Moreno, often needed overnight care, neighbors said.
Bomb 4: Two unidentified victims
More than 300 federal law enforcement officials and scores of police officers widened their search for the bomber or bombers, even pleading with them to come forward to discuss any demands as they warned Austinites to report suspicious packages.
The fourth bomb to rock Austin was neither on the east side nor concealed in a package. An explosive device detonated Sunday night after being triggered by a trip wire in what authorities called the work of a “sophisticated serial bomber.” Two men were injured.
Police have not revealed the names of the victims. But the Associated Press spoke with William Grote, who said his grandson Will and a friend were struck by the blast. His grandson had nails embedded in his knees, Grote said. Bombers will often add makeshift shrapnel such as nails, screws and ball bearings to increase a bomb’s killing power.
“It was so dark they couldn’t tell and they tripped,” he said, according to the AP. “They didn’t see it. It was a wire. And it blew up.”
Another package found at a separate FedEx center in Austin later Tuesday had a bomb inside but was "disrupted" by law enforcement before it exploded, the FBI said in a statement.
One person was injured in Austin after an "incendiary device" was found at a Goodwill store Tuesday, but police said that incident did not appear be related to the other bombings. Police have not ruled out the possibility that those bombings could be hate crimes.
Will further update as more information comes in!
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