The Austin bomber is dead after terrorizing the city of Austin, Tex with at least 7 bombs. The 24-year-old white male suspect, died early Wednesday after blowing himself up in his vehicle as officers closed in on him.
The suspect was identified by investigators via security footage taken at a FedEx store, and police moved in to make an arrest. They tracked him to a hotel room in the Round Rock neighborhood of Greater Austin, then onto I-35, where they pulled him over at around 2 5AM EST. As SWAT officers approached, he detonated a bomb in the vehicle, killing himself and injuring one of them, provoking another to fire upon the vehicle.
The Austin police chief, Brian Manley did not rule out the possibility that the man had accomplices.
“We do not understand what motivated him to do what he did,” Chief Manley said.
Law enforcement officials cautioned that the bomber could have planted other explosives that have not yet detonated. “We still need to remain vigilant,” Chief Manley said. “We do not know where he has been in the past 24 hours.”
He added, “This investigation is still underway, so we cannot say that this was an individual acting on their own.”
The series of bombings began on March 2 and bewildered law enforcement officials, who by Sunday began taking the unusual step of issuing a public call for the suspected serial bomber to get in touch and explain why he was carrying out the bombings.
The first two bombs killed black men, raising fears that they were part of a hate crime, but investigators said the later, more random blasts made that less likely.
The New York Times and Wikipedia contributed to this article.
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