The beloved local motto — repeated with equal pride by college students, self-proclaimed slackers, 20-something tech hotshots and high-priced lobbyists — isn’t supposed to apply to something as sinister as the string of deadly recent bombings.

The blasts have sent a deep chill through a hipster city known for warm weather, live music, barbeque and, above all, not taking itself too seriously.

Could all that make Austin, whose population and economy are booming, whose politics are liberal and whose diversity is rich more likely to be targeted? No one really knows.

Police in the Texas capital are still working to determine a motive for the five bombings that have killed two people and wounded four others since March 2. The blasts have struck multiple locations, making detecting a pattern difficult.

The first three explosives were hidden in packages left on doorsteps, while a bomb that went off on Sunday used a more sophisticated tripwire. Another parcel detonated Tuesday at a FedEx processing facility in Schertz, about 60 miles from Austin, near San Antonio.

Investigators say the blasts could be acts of domestic terrorism or possibly hate crimes since the victims of the first attacks were all black and Hispanic, though the two men hurt in Sunday’s explosion were white.

The package shipped via FedEx came from Austin and was heading back to an Austin address, but authorities have not divulged details about where it was going.

“For us, it’s personal. This is our home,” Police Chief Brian Manley said Tuesday. He noted that many crime statics still rank Austin among the nation’s safest cities.

“We’re facing a big challenge, and we will get through this,” Manley said. “We don’t want to lose, in the middle of all this, that we’re still a safe city.”

The population has grown from less than 800,000 in 2010 to nearly 930,000 two years ago, according to census figures and city estimates. Factor in suburbs that have sprawled past Austin’s northern and southern limits and the growth is even faster. The expansion has been fueled by an increasingly large Hispanic community, which has helped make Austin more diverse.

Nelson Linder, president of the Austin chapter of the NAACP, originally suggested it was no coincidence that the first two blasts hit victims with ties to people active in Austin’s black community. But Sunday’s explosion involved a tripwire along a public trail that could have ensnared anyone. Now the entire city is watching closely.

“It got everybody’s attention,” Linder said. “No one is safe.”

Austin is also a liberal bastion, happy to be the blue hole in the middle of the deeply conservative red doughnut of Texas. Its economic surge has been anchored by a thriving tech sector featuring companies like Dell, Samsung and Apple. Facebook and Google also have offices here, and there’s a chance Amazon’s coveted HQ2 could being coming as well.

Ken Herman, an Austin American-Statesman columnist with a wickedly dry wit who has lived in the city since 1979 except for five years when he worked in Washington, puzzled over the question of why.

“There’s a lot of new people who come to town, and maybe they’re not accepted in for some reason — although this is a fairly accepting community, even if you’re from California,” Herman said. “It could be someone who says, ‘Austin isn’t what it used to be.’ Who knows? That’s what so diabolical about this.”

Austin has endured dark times before. It was still a sleepy college town in August 1966, when Marine-trained sniper Charles Whitman climbed to the observation deck of a clock tower on the University of Texas campus and opened fire in an attack that introduced Americans to the idea of a mass shooting.

Still, the bombings have not scared people into staying home or disrupted daily routines. Two bombs exploded during the South By Southwest festival last week, but the blasts were far from the main attractions. A PGA golf tournament begins Wednesday on the city’s western outskirts, well removed from any blast site.

Austin is also home to the UT campus, one of the nation’s largest universities, with about 50,000 students. Fall football games draw 100,000 fans. But no bombs have so far been placed near the university, and they have similarly spared the city’s tech and entertainment districts.

Instead the explosions have hit nondescript suburban enclaves that could be neighborhoods anywhere.

Noel Holmes lives in the one where Sunday’s bombing happened. She said the attack left her and many others simply shaking their heads.

“I’m hoping someone turns this person in,” Holmes said. “Or that serial bomber will find another neighborhood to put the fear of God in.”</s>(CNN) Austin, Texas has been on edge after a string of package bomb explosions -- but a possible blast reported Tuesday night turned out to be unrelated, police say.

The latest incident turned out to be a Goodwill worker who was injured by simulated military ordnance in a donation box.

The worker's injuries were not life-threatening and he was treated and released from a hospital, officials said.

Earlier, authorities said they were responding to a report of a possible explosion, setting off fears a serial bomber had struck again in the Texas capital.

The Goodwill employee found two artillery simulators in a box of dropped-off items, and was injured when one of the ordnances "initiated," Assistant Chief of Austin Police Ely Reyes told reporters.

"This incident is not related to any of the other incidents that we've had here in Austin," Reyes said at a late-night news conference. He added that it didn't appear a copycat was responsible for the Goodwill box.

#UPDATE: There was no package explosion in the 9800 block of Brodie Ln. Items inside package was not a bomb, rather an incendiary device. At this time, we have no reason to believe this incident is related to previous package bombs. #Breaking #packagebombmurders — Austin Police Dept (@Austin_Police) March 21, 2018

The news of the incident came on a day two packages, one in a different part of Texas, caused authorities to widen their investigation.

The two packages, one that exploded at a FedEx sorting center near San Antonio and another later discovered back in Austin, are connected to four bombings in Austin, law enforcement agencies said Tuesday evening.

The ATF tweeted Tuesday evening that it, the FBI and Austin police had confirmed the connection.

One package Tuesday injured a FedEx worker in Schertz, near San Antonio, when the parcel went off just after midnight, officials said. Schertz is a little more than an hour southwest of Austin.

A second package, which was found at a FedEx facility near Austin's international airport, was being examined by authorities, the FBI's San Antonio office said in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday's developments added to the anxiety in the state capital, where four package bombs that caused two deaths and reports of other dubious parcels have Austin in what one US lawmaker from Texas described as "absolute panic."

Key developments

• A FedEx spokesman, Jim McCluskey, said of the person who sent the package that exploded Tuesday, "The individual responsible also shipped a second package that has now been secured and turned over to law enforcement."

• The company also gave law enforcement "extensive evidence related to these packages and the individual that shipped them collected from our advanced technology security systems," McCluskey added in a statement.

An ATF vehicle sits at a FedEx sorting center where a package exploded Tuesday in Schertz, Texas.

• The FBI is investigating a "confirmed link" between packages involved in the Austin investigations and a mail delivery office in Sunset Valley, southwest of downtown Austin, police in Sunset Valley said Tuesday. They did not indicate which packages were connected to the Sunset Valley office.

• The FedEx explosion represents a new method for the bomber or bombers. None of the four previous explosives was shipped, police have said.

• Schertz Police Chief Michael Hansen said he was confident the package that exploded there was not meant to target that facility or the city, though he wouldn't say why.

• FBI Special Agent James Smith declined to answer reporters' questions about whether the package that blew up was destined for Austin. Smith also said he had no reason to believe people in Schertz face any threat.

• There have been more than 1,200 calls about suspicious packages that have come in since March 12, Austin police said

• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee asked an FBI acting deputy director for a briefing in Washington on efforts to find the bomb maker. "There is absolute panic in Austin," said Jackson-Lee, who represents Houston.

• President Donald Trump did not comment when asked Tuesday if he thought the bombings were acts of domestic terrorism. Trump called the situation "absolutely disgraceful" and said of those responsible: "We have to find them really immediately."

The four Austin bombings

In Austin, authorities have been combing for clues to the four explosions there, the first three of which involved cardboard packages left in front yards or on porches. They weren't delivered by the US Postal Service or services such as UPS or FedEx, police say.

Those three explosions -- one on March 2 and two more on March 12 -- killed or wounded three African-American people and one Hispanic person. The blasts happened in east Austin areas that predominantly have minority residents, and some in the area expressed concern the attacks might have been racially motivated

Police have not uncovered a motive and have not ruled out the possibility those bombings could be hate crimes.

In the fourth blast, a device Sunday was triggered by a tripwire, injuring two white men, police said. It had been left on the side of a road in a predominantly white area. Those men are in good condition at St. David's South Austin Medical Center, a hospital representative said.

"The use of a tripwire is far less discriminating than leaving parcel bombs at residences and suggests that (Sunday's) victims were not specifically targeted," the global think tank Stratfor said in one of its Threat Lens reports.

At the Schertz FedEx facility, a package that was moving along an automated conveyor exploded around 12:25 a.m. Tuesday, Hansen said. A worker standing near the explosion suffered minor injuries and was treated and released, officials said.

If one perpetrator is behind all five blasts, then the person deployed an unusually wide range of skills and delivery methods, CNN law enforcement analyst James Gagliano said.

"Some of these folks ... as long as the bomb maker walks away with 10 fingers and 10 toes, that's successful to them," said Gagliano, a retired FBI supervisory special agent.

"But the method, the delivery system and the different means that he's having these things in place shows that he's trying to show -- if it's the same person on all five of these -- a full panoply of different ways of doing this," he added, "and that's frightening."

Three members of the Congressional Black Caucus called Monday for federal officials to classify the bombings as terrorist attacks and determine whether they are "ideologically or racially motivated."

'I was pretty scared'

Brian Jaimes, 19, a package handler at the FedEx facility near Austin where investigators were working on a suspicious package, said employees were called to the front office and then told to leave the building.

"I was pretty scared," said Jaimes, who has worked at the facility for four months.

When asked whether the news about the bombings has made him nervous about coming to work, he said: "I try not to think about it, especially since I work (at a package shipper)."

What agencies are involved?

More than 350 special agents assigned by the FBI, as well as Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents and forensic investigators in Quantico, Virginia, are on the Austin case.

At the state level, about 100 Texas Department of Public Safety officers, sergeants and special agents as well as the Texas Ranger bomb squad, bomb-sniffing dogs, intelligence agents and helicopters are also involved, CNN affiliate KXAN reported.

Police departments in Houston and San Antonio are sending bomb technicians and canine teams to Austin, their police chiefs said Monday.

How are they examining the evidence?

ATF has taken evidence from the four blast sites in Austin, Police Chief Brian Manley said.

"The prior three scenes are already in the lab at Quantico, and the evidence from the scene from last night is on its way to Quantico as well," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday night.

"They're looking at the devices, they're comparing them, looking for similarities," he said. "The similarities they've seen to this point, lead them to believe -- as we do -- that these are all being constructed by the same person or persons who are responsible for this."

How are officials handling the tips?

Austin police have received lots of tips, Manley said Monday night.

"As each tip comes in, it gets assigned to either a team of FBI agents, ATF agents or Austin police detectives to do follow-up work on," he said.

Manley urged residents to call police with any information.

"No matter how inconsequential you think it may be, that may be the piece of evidence we need to link it together and solve this before we have someone else in our community that gets seriously injured or killed," he said.

What are police asking residents to do?

Police are appealing to residents to pay attention to their surroundings. Residents shouldn't approach or touch anything that looks suspicious, Manley said.

JUST WATCHED Austin police: We're dealing with a serial bomber Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Austin police: We're dealing with a serial bomber 01:13

"We now need the community to have an extra level of vigilance and pay attention to any suspicious device -- whether it be a package or a bag, a backpack -- anything that looks out of place," he said Monday. "Do not approach items like that."</s>Investigators are trying to determine whether an explosion early Tuesday at a FedEx facility outside San Antonio is connected to four explosions that have rattled the Austin, Texas, area this month.

The most recent blast happened inside a FedEx facility in Schertz, Texas, FBI San Antonio spokeswoman Michelle Lee said. Schertz is a San Antonio suburb that is roughly an hour's drive southwest of Austin.

One FedEx team member suffered minor injuries when a "single package exploded" at the ground sorting facility, company spokesman Jim McCluskey said Tuesday in a statement. An ATF spokeswoman earlier had said no injuries were reported.

"We are not providing any additional specific information about this package at this time," McCluskey said.

Based on preliminary information gathered at the scene, Lee said there could be a connection with the four Austin explosions, which killed two people and injured four others over 17 days starting March 2.

"We suspect it is related to our investigation," Lee said.

If the FedEx incident is confirmed to be linked to the Austin blasts, it would represent a new method for the suspect or suspects. None of the four previous explosives was mailed.

The ATF could not confirm that the latest explosion is associated with the Austin blasts, ATF spokeswoman Nicole Strong said. The ATF's Houston field division is at the FedEx facility in Schertz, the agency said on Twitter.

FedEx is "working closely with law enforcement in their investigation," McCluskey said.

In Austin, authorities have been combing for clues to the four explosions there -- the first three of which involved cardboard packages that were left in front yards or porches and weren't delivered the US Postal Service or services such as UPS or FedEx, police say.

In the fourth blast, a device was triggered by a tripwire Sunday, injuring two men, police said.
• President Donald Trump has been briefed on the Austin bombings, a White House spokesman said Monday, adding that the White House pledges its support to local law enforcement.
• Three members of the Congressional Black Caucus called Monday for federal officials to classify the bombings as terrorist attacks and determine whether they are "ideologically or racially motivated."
• The NAACP called the incidents "acts of domestic terrorism" and called for vigilance and caution for communities in Austin.

More than 350 special agents assigned by the FBI, as well as ATF agents and forensic investigators in Quantico, Virginia, are on the case.

On the state level, about 100 Texas Department of Public Safety officers, sergeants, and special agents, as well as the Texas Ranger bomb squad, bomb-sniffing dogs, intelligence agents and helicopters are also involved, reported CNN affiliate KXAN.

Police departments in Houston and San Antonio are sending bomb technicians and canine teams to Austin, their police chiefs said Monday.

How are they examining the evidence?

ATF has taken evidence from the four blast sites, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said.

"The prior three scenes are already in the lab at Quantico, and the evidence from the scene from last night is on its way to Quantico as well," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday night.

"They're looking at the devices, they're comparing them, looking for similarities," he said.

"The similarities they've seen to this point, lead them to believe -- as we do -- that these are all being constructed by the same person or persons who are responsible for this."

How are they handling the tips?

Austin police has received lots of tips, Manley said Monday night.

"As each tip comes in, it gets assigned to either a team of FBI agents, ATF agents or Austin Police detectives to do follow-up work on," he said.

Manley also urged residents to call police with any tips they may have.

"No matter how inconsequential you think it may be, that may be the piece of evidence we need to link it together and solve this, before we have someone else in our community that gets seriously injured or killed," he said.

What resources are they getting?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced more than $265,500 in emergency funding for the Austin Police Department and the Texas Ranger Response Team to purchase seven portable X-ray systems.

The systems can be used at the scene so they can quickly assess the safety of packages.

"I want to ensure everyone in the Austin region and the entire state that Texas is committed to providing every resource necessary to make sure these crimes are solved as quickly as possible," Abbott said in a statement.

The reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible for the blasts is at a total of $115,000.

What are police asking residents to do?

Police are appealing to residents to pay attention to their surroundings to see if something looks out of place.

Manley told residents not to touch or go near anything that looks suspicious.

"We now need the community to have an extra level of vigilance and pay attention to any suspicious device -- whether it be a package or a bag, a backpack -- anything that looks out of place," Manley said Monday. "Do not approach items like that."

Authorities are also asking anyone in the neighborhood with security camera footage to call police.

Many minority residents in Austin have been on edge since the bombings started, as the first three bombings killed or wounded minorities who received packages at their doors. Police have not discovered a motive, but have not ruled out the possibility those bombings could be hate crimes.

The fourth explosion injured two white males, who were injured by a device left on the side of a road and triggered by a tripwire.

"The use of a tripwire is far less discriminating than leaving parcel bombs at residences and suggests that the latest victims were not specifically targeted," the global think tank Stratfor Threat Lens said.

The use of a tripwire suggests that the bomb maker is perhaps more sophisticated and capable of making a more complex bomb, law enforcement and analysts have said.</s>Sign up for one of our email newsletters.

AUSTIN, Texas — A package bomb that authorities believe is linked to the recent string of Austin bombings exploded early Tuesday inside of a FedEx distribution center near San Antonio, leaving one worker with minor injuries.

FBI agent Michelle Lee said the explosion happened at around 1 a.m. at a FedEx facility in Schertz, which is just northeast of San Antonio and about 60 miles (95 kilometers) southwest of Austin. One worker was treated for minor injuries and released, according to statements issued by the Schertz Police Department and FedEx.

Lee said that although it is still early in the investigation, “it would be silly for us not to admit that we suspect it's related” to the four Austin bombings that have killed two people and injured four others since March 2. She didn't have details about the size, weight or description of the package.

The most recent bombing in Austin injured two men Sunday night in the quiet neighborhood of Travis Country in the southeast of the city. It was triggered along a street by a nearly invisible tripwire, suggesting a “higher level of sophistication” than agents saw in three early package bombs left on doorsteps, according to Fred Milanowski, agent in charge of the Houston division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Sunday's attack means the carnage by a suspected serial bomber that has terrorized Austin for weeks is now random, rather than targeted at someone in particular.

Authorities haven't identified the two men injured Sunday, saying only that they are in their 20s and white. But William Grote told The Associated Press on Monday that his grandson was one of them and that he had what appeared to be nails embedded in his knees. Police described the men's injuries as significant, and both remained hospitalized in stable condition on Monday.

Grote said his grandson was cognizant but was still in a lot of pain. He said on the night of the bombing, one of the victims was riding a bike in the street and the other was on a sidewalk when they crossed a tripwire that he said knocked “them both off their feet.”

“It was so dark they couldn't tell and they tripped,” he said. “They didn't see it. It was a wire. And it blew up.”

Grote said his son, who lives about 100 yards (90 meters) from the blast, heard the explosion and raced outside. “Both of them were kind of bleeding profusely,” Grote said.

That was a departure from the first three bombings, which involved parcels left on doorsteps that detonated when moved or opened.

The tripwire twist heightened the fear around Austin, a town famous for its cool, hipster attitude.

“It's creepy,” said Erin Mays, 33. “I'm not a scared person, but this feels very next-door-neighbor kind of stuff.”

Authorities repeated prior warnings about not touching unexpected packages and also issued new ones to be wary of any stray object left in public, especially ones with protruding wires.

“We're very concerned that with tripwires, a child could be walking down a sidewalk and hit something,” Christopher Combs, FBI agent in charge of the bureau's San Antonio division, said in an interview.

Police originally pointed to possible hate crimes, but the victims have now been black, Hispanic and white and from different parts of the increasingly diverse city. Domestic terrorism is among the variety of possible motives investigators are looking at.

Local and state police and hundreds of federal agents are investigating, and the reward for information leading to an arrest has climbed to $115,000.

“We are clearly dealing with what we believe to be a serial bomber at this point,” Austin police Chief Brian Manley said, citing similarities among the four bombs. He would not elaborate, though, saying he didn't want to undermine the investigation.

While the first three bombings all occurred east of Interstate 35, a section of town that tends to be more heavily minority and less affluent, Sunday's was west of the highway. The differences in where the blasts have occurred, the lack of a motive and other unknowns make it harder to draw conclusions about a possible pattern, further unnerving a city on edge.

Thad Holt, 76, said he is now watching his steps as he makes his way through a section of town near the latest attack. “I think everybody can now say, ‘Oh, that's like my neighborhood,'” he said.

The ATF's Milanowski said the latest bomb was anchored to a metal yard sign near the head of a hiking trail.

“It was a thin wire or filament, kind of like fishing line,” he said. “It would have been very difficult for someone to see.”

Milanowski said authorities have checked more than 500 leads. Police asked anyone with surveillance cameras at their homes to come forward with the footage on the chance it captured suspicious vehicles or people.</s>ROUND ROCK, Texas — The suspect in the Austin explosions has died, multiple CNN affiliates reported, citing law enforcement sources. CNN is working to confirm this latest information.

Since March 2, a serial bomber has terrorized the Texas capital, leaving several explosive packages around the city.

Highway closure: Police shut down parts of Interstate 35 early Wednesday following an officer-involved shooting. It’s unclear whether it was related to the explosions investigation.

Lots of officers: Police cars swarmed the area as sirens blared, with police, the FBI and other federal agencies at the scene.

Latest incident: A package exploded at a FedEx sorting center near San Antonio on Tuesday, and a second unexploded bomb was discovered on the same day at another FedEx facility near Austin. Those two packages are connected to four previous bombings that left two people dead.

Secured: FedEx said the person who sent the package that exploded Tuesday also shipped a second one that was turned over to law enforcement officials.

Evidence: The company said it provided authorities with “extensive evidence” from its security system on the packages and the person who shipped them.

Connected: Austin police and the FBI say the two packages at separate FedEx facilities are connected to the four previous package explosions in the Texas capital.

Wrong target: In the incident near San Antonio, the device detonated on an automatic conveyor, Police Chief Michael Hansen said. A female employee was treated on site and released. The FedEx facility was not the intended target.

Unrelated: A possible explosion reported Tuesday night at a Goodwill store in Austin turned out to be unrelated. In that incident, an employee was injured by two “artillery simulators” in a donation box, said Ely Reyes, Austin’s assistant police chief. The employee was treated and released from a hospital, Reyes said.

Numerous calls: Austin Police say they’ve responded to 1,257 reports of suspicious packages since March 12.

With every change in the bomber’s tactic, Austin residents are getting increasingly nervous.

Grocery stores, apartment buildings and restaurants have been evacuated at a moment’s notice as investigations intensify.

“This is terrorizing the city of Austin,” Rep. Michael McCaul told President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

As investigators search for answers, they are checking the cameras at the facilities from Tuesday’s incidents, the source said.

Investigators believe the same person is behind all the devices, the source said, adding that the devices have a lot of consistencies. They are similar in the way they are made and use the same items, including a “mouse trap” or a “close pin” switch, according to the source.

“We made one to show everyone what it looks like and we did it in an hour,” the source said. The the bombmaker may have taken longer to do it to avoid blowing themselves up, according to the source.

The level of bombmaking skill doesn’t necessarily point to military experience, the source added.

Investigators said the package that was found intact Tuesday may yield some clues.

“Now we have the blueprint and possible DNA on the inside of the bomb. So teams are working to render it safe and then look for DNA,” the source said. The outside of the package would have been touched by employees at the store where it was dropped off and by the bombmaker, the source said.

The bombmaker may have been wearing gloves.

Of the four previous explosions in Austin, the first three involved cardboard packages left in front yards or on porches. They weren’t delivered by the US Postal Service or services such as UPS or FedEx, police say.

Those three explosions — one on March 2 and two more on March 12 — killed or wounded three African-Americans and one Hispanic person. They happened in east Austin areas with predominantly minority residents. Some residents expressed concern the attacks might have been racially-motivated.

The first explosion killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House on March 2. The second blast on March 12 killed 17-year-old Draylen Mason. The third blast happened several hours later and critically injured a 75-year-old woman.

Those three blasts all happened after someone left explosives-laden packages on the victims’ doorsteps.

In the fourth blast, a device was triggered by a tripwire, injuring two white men in a predominantly white area.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that those bombings could be hate crimes. They urged residents to pay attention to their surroundings, and not approach or touch anything that looks suspicious.</s>As hundreds of law enforcement officers fanned out across the heart of Texas this month in the hunt for the Austin bomber, laboratory technicians with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives hunched over thousands of tiny bomb fragments in a feverish race to rebuild the devices -- knowing they'd yield key clues about their creator.Although some of the bombs were fashioned into packages left on doorsteps and at least one was triggered by a tripwire planted alongside a street, agents were able to zero in on common parts used in all the devices to discover key clues about where they were purchased and, eventually, who bought them, officials said."To the public, they may have all looked different but when the ATF bomb technicians were able to put those devices back together, the components that were used were very similar," Fred Milanowski, special agent in charge of the Houston Field Division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told ABC News.The alleged bomber became the victim of his own handy work when he detonated an explosive in his vehicle in a confrontation with police on the side of a highway outside Austin, according to a statement from the Austin Police Department. He was identified as 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt of Pflugerville, a suburb of Austin.The bomber first struck March 2, when a package bomb left on a porch in north Austin killed Anthony Stephan House, 39, after he opened it. The bomber then struck twice March 12, leaving similarly packaged explosives on stoops in the Martin Luther King Jr. neighborhood of East Austin, killing 17-year-old Draylen Mason and injuring his mother."So after the first and second one, we were very familiar with what the components were," Milanowski said. "So then when we processed the crime scene we were looking for those components. So, on the insides, they were very similar."Every bomber has what we call a signature and once they find a successful way to make their bomb, they usually stick with it so they don't make mistakes and injure themselves," Milanowski said. "Again, we saw that signature throughout and, you know, one of the things that was consistent in these devices was the nails and screws throughout."In the third attack March 19, the perpetrator changed his method of detonation, using a tripwire to trigger a blast in a residential neighborhood in southwest Austin called Travis Country, severely injuring two men, ages 22 and 23."When he used the tripwire, that obviously made us a little more concerned because of the randomness of it," Milanowski said. "We were really concerned that a child or young children might come across a tripwire."The bomber also began to pick up the pace, using FedEx to mail out at least two packages, one that exploded early Tuesday on a conveyor belt at a FexEx sorting facility near San Antonio that left one worker with minor injuries.ATF technicians had already learned a lot about the mystery bomber by studying the thousands of pieces of metal, bolts, nails and triggering devices he used to build his arsenal."After some analysis from our laboratory, we knew the explosive mixture that was used and so we knew exactly what the bombs were after the first and second ones," Milanowski said.Because the bomber used the same components multiple times, which serial bombers tend to do to decrease the chances of a premature detonation, investigators also knew where he'd purchased them, Milanowski said.Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Conditt purchased materials he used in his bombs, including nails and battery packs, at a Home Depot near his house. McCaul, who was briefed on the investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety, also said the suspect was caught on security footage at a FedEx shipping center in southwest Austin.Milanowski said agents, cognizant that the bomber could strike again at any time, worked nearly around the clock, some working 17 hours straight, to glean clues in the hunt for the culprit."Like any bombing investigation, we try to identify all the components and we break it down to where the components are sold and who would have bought those and if they bought multiple components," Milanowski said. "And, then, eventually, you get to the suspects and tie them into other areas: The vehicle and the area, what stores they were at; was there videotape?"He said technicians identified several devices that were "unique" and were able to narrow down who bought them."We know when he bought some of the components," Milanowski said. "We don't know when he bought every single one of the components, so it's hard to say whether he was building along the way or, so to speak, had them on the shelf."A major break in the case came Tuesday when FedEx workers discovered an intact package at a sorting facility in Austin and agents were able to quickly ascertain that it was sent by the same individual who sent the package that exploded earlier at the delivery company's facility near San Antonio."Fortunately, we were able to do some digging and identify this individual in the last 48 hours; able to put this together that this was our suspect," Milanowski said.But even though the suspect is dead, Milanowski said, law enforcement can't let down its guard."We are not 100 percent convinced that there are no other devices out there, so we really, really want the public to still be vigilant and if they see a suspect package or bag or backpack, please call 911," he added.Milanowski credited the general public for sending in numerous tips that local, state and federal officers chased down and for reporting hundreds of suspicious packages that were investigated.He said the coordination between the various agencies involved "was the most critical part" of the probe."Every single agency brought their A team to this investigation," Milanowski said.</s>A package exploded early Tuesday at a FedEx distribution facility in Texas, news reports said, two days after the latest in a series of blasts in Austin attributed to a serial bomber.

This time the explosion rocked a facility in the town of Schertz, in the San Antonio area. Reports said one employee was injured.

The Washington Post, quoting the FBI, reported that the package had been bound for Austin, the state capital.

Hundreds of police officers and FBI agents are searching for a mysterious "serial bomber" after Sunday's blast in Austin the fourth this month left two young men seriously injured and the city on edge.

Police said the explosion was connected to three previous bombings in Austin and the bomber used a tripwire in the latest attack, showing a higher level of skill.

"We're clearly dealing with what we expect to be a serial bomber at this point," Austin police chief Brian Manley told reporters.</s>AUSTIN, Texas >> Emergency teams were responding Tuesday night to another reported explosion in Texas’ capital, this one at a Goodwill store in the southern part of the city.

In a tweet, the Austin Police Department urged residents to avoid the area. Austin-Travis County EMS said there had been reports of at least one person injured, though it was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were.

It came as investigators who have pursued a suspected serial bomber terrorizing Austin for weeks uncovered what seemed like valuable new leads in the case.

Even before the report of the Goodwill blast, it had already been a busy day for authorities. Before dawn Tuesday, a bomb inside a package exploded around 1 a.m. as it passed along a conveyer belt at a FedEx shipping center near San Antonio, causing minor injuries to a worker. The Austin Police Department, the FBI and other federal agencies confirmed that the package center blast was related to four previous ones that killed two people and seriously injured four others.

That explosion occurred at a FedEx facility in Schertz, just northeast of San Antonio and about 60 miles southwest of Austin.

Later in the morning, police sent a bomb squad to a FedEx facility outside the Austin airport to check on a suspicious package that was reported around 6:20 a.m. Federal agencies and police later said that package had indeed contained an explosive that was successfully intercepted by authorities. They added that the intercepted package, too, was believed to be related to the other bombings.

Meanwhile, authorities also closed off an Austin-area FedEx store where they believe the bomb that exploded was shipped to the distribution center. They roped off a large area around the shopping center in the enclave of Sunset Valley and were collecting evidence, including surveillance camera footage.

Then, authorities closed off an Austin-area FedEx store where they believe the bomb that exploded was shipped to the distribution center — roping off a large area around the shopping center in the enclave of Sunset Valley and were collecting evidence, including surveillance camera footage.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Austin who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that investigators have obtained surveillance videos that “could possibly” show a suspect, but are still poring through video.

“I hope his biggest mistake was going through FedEx,” McCaul, who has spoken to federal investigators and Austin police Chief Brian Manley, said of the bomber in a phone interview.

He added that the person responsible for the bombings had previously been “very sophisticated in going around surveillance cameras.”

“They’ve got a couple of videos that could possibly be the person but they’re not sure at this point,” McCaul said.

Before it exploded, the package had been sent from Austin and was addressed to a home in Austin, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.

In a statement, FedEx officials said the same person responsible for sending the package also shipped a second parcel that has been secured and turned over to law enforcement. A company spokeswoman refused to say if that second package might have been linked to the one reported at the distribution center near the airport.

The Schertz blast came less than two days after a bombing wounded two men Sunday night in a quiet Austin neighborhood about 3 miles from the FedEx store. It was triggered by a nearly invisible tripwire, suggesting a “higher level of sophistication” than agents saw in three package bombs previously left on doorsteps, according to Fred Milanowski, the agent in charge of the Houston division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A criminologist at the University of Alabama said if a single perpetrator is behind the blasts, changing the means of delivery increases the bomber’s chance of getting caught.

“I think it would suggest that the bomber is trying to stay unpredictable,” Adam Lankford said. “But it also increases the likelihood that he would make a mistake.”

Authorities have not identified the two men who were hurt Sunday, saying only that they are in their 20s and white. But William Grote told The Associated Press that his grandson was one of them and that he had what appeared to be nails embedded in his knees.

On the night of the fourth bombing, one of the victims was riding a bike in the street and the other was on a sidewalk when they hit the tripwire.

“It was so dark they couldn’t tell, and they tripped,” Grote said.

In Washington, President Donald Trump said the assailant behind the bombing is “very sick.”

During an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the president said, “This is obviously a very sick individual or individuals,” and authorities are “working to get to the bottom of it.”

Despite bombing tactics that have now shifted, investigators have repeated prior warnings about not touching unexpected packages and urged people to be wary of any stray object left in public. Austin police say they have now responded to more than 1,200 reports of suspicious packages in a little more than a week — without finding anything dangerous.

Officers originally pointed to possible hate crimes, but the victims have now been black, Hispanic and white and from different parts of the city.

“We are clearly dealing with what we believe to be a serial bomber,” Manley says.

Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin and Matt Sedensky in New York contributed to this report.</s>The suspect in a string of explosions that killed two people and injured four others, terrorizing the area of Austin, Texas, for three weeks, was killed during a confrontation with police early Wednesday.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley announced in a news conference that authorities had zeroed in on the suspect and located him at a hotel in the town of Round Rock, north of Austin. While waiting for additional police support, the suspect drove away and eventually pulled over into a ditch, Manley said.

“As members of the Austin Police Department SWAT team approached the vehicle, the suspect detonated a bomb inside the vehicle, knocking one our squad officers back and one of our squad officers fired at the suspect as well,” he said.

Manley said that at no point did officials make contact with the suspect before the explosion.

“The suspect is deceased and has significant injuries from a blast that occurred from detonating a bomb inside his vehicle,” he added.

Manley did not name the suspect, pending positive identification and notification of next of kin, saying only that he was a 24-year-old white male.

He said that a motive has not been confirmed and the investigation continues.

It is not yet clear if the suspected bomber acted alone or with accomplices, Manley said. He declined to release other specific information about Wednesday’s altercation.

Manley also urged residents of Austin and the surrounding communities to remain vigilant, as the suspect could have planted or mailed more bombs before his death.

“This is the culmination of three very long weeks for our community,” he said.

A high-ranking law enforcement official told the that police tracked down the suspect using surveillance footage from a FedEx store where he shipped a package bomb.

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,” according to the newspaper.
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Police then reportedly used cell phone triangulation technology to locate the suspect.

Manley said Wednesday that the officer who was injured in the blast that killed the suspect received minor injuries.

The chief said the veteran officer who fired his weapon during the confrontation will be placed on leave while the department conducts an investigation, as is standard.

President Donald Trump reacted to the news on Twitter, writing early Wednesday, “AUSTIN BOMBING SUSPECT IS DEAD. Great job by law enforcement and all concerned!”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also praised the work of Austin police and warned that residents exercise caution.

“BIG NEWS. The Austin Bomber is dead. More work needs to be done to ensure no more bombs had been sent before he died. The investigation continues to learn more information,” Abbott said via Twitter. “Congratulations to the combined law enforcement effort.”

On March 2, the first bomb detonated and killed Anthony House, a 39-year-old Austin resident who picked up the explosive device disguised as a package on his doorstep, authorities have said.

The explosions continued on March 12, where 17-year-old Draylen Mason died after picking up a package and another person, a middle-aged woman, was injured. Hours after that explosion occurred, police reported a third blast, which injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman.

Authorities soon announced a $115,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for those explosions — and shortly after, a fourth explosion, believed to be caused by a trip wire, occurred. Two men were injured.

A fifth explosion was reported on Tuesday, shortly after midnight, when a package believed to be bound for Austin exploded at a FedEx facility northeast of San Antonio. An employee at the facility was treated for ringing in her ears but no one was injured in the bombing.

Another blast at a Goodwill in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday night was determined to have been caused by an incendiary device rather than a bomb. “At this time, we have no reason to believe this incident is related to previous package bombs,” police said.

A retired FBI criminal profiler, James R. Fitzgerald, previously told PEOPLE the suspect appeared familiar with the area.

“He’s not offending where he lives right now because it would be a little too close to home,” Fitzgerald said. “But he probably has familiarity with one or more of those areas.”

Fitzgerald added, “These are sophisticated devices put together by someone who knows what he’s doing. He knew not just how to design it and place it, but how to travel with it too.”</s>A blog purportedly written by Texas serial bombing suspect Mark Conditt outlines his extreme views on controversial issues and in the wake of the bombings, reads like a manifesto.

The blog, entitled “Defending My Stance,” appears to be an assignment for a U.S. government course he took while attending Austin Community College.

“Why gay marriage should be illegal,” read one entry. “Homosexuality is not natural. It would be like trying to fit two screws together.”

Conditt also took aim at the death penalty, internet piracy and abortions.

“If a woman does not want a baby… she should not participate in activities that were made for that reason,” he wrote in another post.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow spoke to Inside Edition about what may have caused Conditt to snap.

“So many of these assailants feel disenfranchised in some fashion,” Dr. Ablow said. “Socially, they may feel ostracized. We haven’t heard a lot of people coming forward saying, ‘This man was my friend.’ Some people feel so isolated that a kind of rage can build up. A kind of antipathy for all other human beings.”

The 23-year-old, who considered himself a conservative, grew up in the small town of Pflugerville, 20 miles north of Austin, Texas.

He was homeschooled most of his life and once worked as a computer-repair technician.

One neighbor said “it is hard to imagine” and “surreal” that Conditt is the main suspect and grew up in the area.

By all accounts, Conditt appeared to have a happy childhood.

His mother also posted photos of him from a family snowboarding trip and from the day he finished high school. He father posted a video of the family on vacation in North Carolina.

But only a few years later, Conditt wrote his so-called manifesto on a blog.

The circumstances are drawing parallels to the infamous Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who terrorized the nation for 17 years, demanded his credo be published in The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Authorities say Kaczynski’s manifesto was a break in the case after it was published in The Times and The Post at the request of Attorney General Janet Reno and the FBI.

After it was published, the manifesto got the attention of Kaczynski’s brother, David, who alerted the FBI. The suspect known as the Unabomber was arrested in April 1996.

LeRoy Bearnson and Gary Wright were targeted by Kaczynski in the 1980s. They are shocked to see a bombing spree happen again, but they are thankful it is over.

“It is kind of scary,” Bearnson told Inside Edition. “It can happen anywhere or any place now.”

Wright added: “Hopefully the community comes together as best they can. It is a thing that no one can prepare for.”

Conditt was unemployed, had no criminal history and was living with two roommates when he started placing bombs around the city.

Former Navy SEAL and bomb expert Jonathan Gilliam says in the final days of his life, Conditt went on a frenzy of terror that made his capture inevitable.

“He wanted to get out there,” he told Inside Edition. “He wanted to get as many bombs out there as he could. He was on a rampage.”

Gilliam said that Conditt was moving at a rapid pace, adding, “It makes you wonder, was there some kind of gain from doing this as quickly as possible and getting as much of these explosives out there to people?”



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 Austin Bomber Dead But Residents Warned to Remain Vigilant of Other Possible Explosives
A bomb detonates overnight at a FedEx facility in San Antonio, Texas, United States. The FBI believes the bombing is linked to the other bombings in the area. The ATF reports that there were no serious injuries. Both the bomb's point of origin and intended destination were in Austin.