Few details emerging about Austin bombing suspect

“They’re saying, ‘Who’s trying to blow you up?’ They’re trying to do the whole thing, ‘Help us help you, because they’re not going to miss again, ‘” said Mark McCrimmon, an Austin attorney who represents the neighbour.

A string of bombings this month have put Austin, Tex., on high alert.

Authorities say the 24-year-old suspect blew himself up in his vehicle overnight as a SWAT team closed in on him in a suburban Austin hotel parking lot. They added that the intercepted package, too, was believed to be related to the other bombings. They happened in east Austin areas where most residents are minorities, and some there expressed concern the attacks might have been racially motivated.

What unfolded in Texas because of her nephew’s actions was a “horrible, awful thing”, Conditt’s aunt told Fox 31. Law enforcement has cleared those sites, he said.

Conditt was able to elude authorities for weeks after allegedly triggering a bombing spree that killed two people and wounded at least five.

Early Tuesday, a bomb inside a package exploded as it passed along a conveyer belt at a FedEx shipping center in Schertz, northeast of San Antonio and about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southwest of Austin.

Surveillance video showed the suspect in a hat and a blond wig, as he prepared to ship one of two booby-trapped packages he was known to have sent through FedEx Corp’s delivery service, according to the source.

But, ultimately, none of this explains why Conditt, who attended a Christian church, veered toward violence, how he made bombs law-enforcement officials described as sophisticated, or why he decided that Austin and its residents should be a target.

Authorities boasted of uncovering a “treasure trove of information” about the dead 23-year-old – but officials warn explosives may still be out there, and other collaborators may be on the loose.

Mr Manley said Conditt set off a bomb as two Austin police officers approached the vehicle.

“Some of these folks.as long as the bombmaker walks away with 10 fingers and 10 toes, that’s successful to them”, said Gagliano, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisory special agent.

Conditt also didn’t reveal a motive for the attacks in the confession tape, which the Statesman’s sources said lasted roughly 28 minutes and was recorded after 9 p.m. on Tuesday. They publicly identified the Texan as the suspected bomber on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after he died in a reportedly self-inflicted blast in the town of Round Rock, following a auto chase with police.

They were awaiting the arrival of those teams when, some time later, Conditt took off in his vehicle.

Manley identified the suspect only as a 24-year-old white male.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley says it seemed to indicate the 23-year-old knew he was about to be caught.

In the recording, police say Conditt does not mention terrorism or hate or even why he chose the victims he did. Another officer fired his gun at Conditt, who suffered “significant injuries from [the] blast”, Manley said.

As the report noted, after being identified, suspected Austin bomber Mark Anthony Conditt drove a short distance and stopped by the side of the road.

The agency tweeted they were on the scene early Wednesday morning where heavy police activity was being reported.

The man suspected of carrying out a series of bombings in Texas left a “confession” as police closed in around him.

The Austin Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There have been multiple reports of heavy police activity in the area. Another few days passed – then, on March 18, a bomb went off on a sidewalk in the city, injuring two men.

Anita Ward works at Austin Med Spa and says that police and federal agents told her that her daughter, who also works there, was meant to be the recipient of the unexploded package.