ROUND ROCK, Texas—A man who police believe carried out a string of package bombings in Austin is dead, putting an end to a weekslong hunt to track down and stop the bomber who had the Texas capital and its residents on edge.
Law enforcement officials, who identified the suspect as 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt, said they traced the white male to a hotel in this Austin suburb, about 20 miles north of the city. In a confrontation with the police, the suspect detonated a device and died, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said. Shots were fired during the encounter with police.
“We believe that this individual is responsible for all incidents that have taken place in Austin, starting on March 2nd and those that have occurred since then as well,” Chief Manley said, referring to the wave of bombings that have killed two people and wounded several more.
Officials said they hadn’t yet identified a motive, and they would be investigating whether any accomplices aided the suspect. Earlier reports said the suspect was 24 years old.
Bombings in Texas
Suspected bomber
dies in encounter
with police
10 miles
10 km
March 2
Austin
texas
March 18
March 12
FedEx facility where
police believe Tuesday’s
packages were mailed
Unexploded bomb
found Tuesday
morning in package
a FedEx facility
New
Braunfels
Tuesday’s
explosion
San
Antonio
Fred Milanowski, the special agent in charge of Houston Field Division for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told The Wall Street Journal that investigators were able to identify the suspect in the Austin serial bomber case through basic police work.
“There were several small pieces that all came together,” he said Wednesday morning. “It was purchases. It was some video. It was witness statements that all came together.”
After the second bombing, on March 12, the ATF identified a “signature” in the explosive devices. “Forensically they were very similar,” Mr. Milanowski said. “Same explosive filler was used in all of them.” All of them featured nails and screws as shrapnel.
He added that all the devices that detonated appear to be the work of a single bomb maker. “We believe that the same person built each of these devices,” he said.
A home address most recently associated with Mr. Conditt, according to records, was located on a dead-end street in the historic downtown of Pflugerville, a small town on the outskirts of Austin that has been absorbed by the sprawling suburbs.
It is a street grid of older homes. Law enforcement officers—Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and ATF agents—have blocked off all access to the house where the suspect is believed to have lived. Roosters crowed on the edge of downtown as the sun rose.
A couple of blocks from the home, a stream of cars drove by – early morning commuters on their way to work. Business owners were opening their stores.
Anthony Williams, owner of the First the Blade Barber Shop, said he was surprised. Most of the people who live in the neighborhood, he said, are older residents who live here to be away from the bustle of nearby Austin. “I just wouldn’t figure it was anyone from out here,” he said, “But I guess he could come from anywhere.”
Police Chief Manley said authorities first identified the suspect as a person of interest about 24 hours to 36 hours ago. By late Tuesday night, he said authorities felt confident that the suspect was responsible for the bombings and tracked his vehicle to the parking lot of a hotel.
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley, center, said the bombing suspect was killed in an encounter with police.
Photo:
JULIA ROBINSON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
As members of the Austin SWAT team approached, the suspect detonated a bomb inside his vehicle, knocking one of the officers back, and another officer fired at the suspect, he said. Chief Manley said the suspect died during the exchange with police and suffered significant injuries from the blast.
“I couldn’t believe yesterday—a bomb here, a bomb there,” said Mona Henson, a Round Rock resident who works as a server at the IHOP off the portion of I-35 shut down by authorities. “I’m glad it’s over.”
She questioned who the bomber might be and whether she might have met him at some point. “You wonder, did I wait on him? Did I see him? Do I know this person?” she said.
The string of bombings started in early March and picked up pace in recent days. On Tuesday, law enforcement found two more explosive devices at FedEx Corp. facilities in Austin and outside of San Antonio.
Chief Manley said witnesses and “video sources” had helped them zero in on the suspect during the course of the investigation.
“We became very interested in him over the last couple days,” he said.
The investigation drew hundreds of law enforcement from federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The bombings began March 2, when a package explosion went off in northeast Austin, killing a 39-year-old man. A pair of package bombs detonated 10 days later in another neighborhood, leaving a 17-year-old dead and two other people wounded. On Sunday night, two men were seriously injured by an explosion in a wealthy enclave near the city limits.
Police initially speculated the attacks might be racially motivated, because the two deceased victims came from prominent African-American families, while one of the wounded people is Hispanic. But Sunday’s bombing was different, rigged with a tripwire, and police say the injured victims—two white men—appear to be random.
The area around hotel, where the suspect had parked his vehicle, buzzed with police activity early Wednesday as law enforcement pressed ahead with their investigation. Bleary eyed guests emerged from their rooms to find the area alit with flashing lights from police cars and other emergency vehicles. Word of what had happened quickly circulated among them.
The bomber was dead.
