Austin Bomber Comes to Explosive End

Four blasts from packages in Austin, Texas killed Texas Quarries project manager Anthony Stephan (39) and student Draylen Mason (17) as well as injured three others in the past 20 days. These packages were delivered to people’s doorsteps and blown up upon being handled. Another suspicious package was discovered at a FedEx facility in southeast Austin that was handled by police and caused no injuries. The same day and day before the bomber’s death, there was a blast outside of San Antonio in Schertz, Texas on a conveyor belt at another FedEx facility that caused minor injuries to one employee.

It was a mystery as to who had been causing the bombings over the 20-day period. That was until police responded to information they received that led them to tracking a vehicle to a hotel in Round Rock, Texas on March 21. The vehicle left the hotel while police were waiting for tactical units to arrive and the police officers proceeded to follow it. The driver stopped in a ditch on the side of Interstate 35; officers believe that the driver did so because police were following him. As the Austin Police Department’s SWAT team approached the vehicle, the driver detonated an explosive device inside, which knocked down and injured a SWAT member.

The driver, Mark Anthony Conditt (23) died in the explosion and has been held responsible for all the incidents that have happened in the previous days. Conditt left behind a 25-minute video on his phone that authorities found shortly after he killed himself and are considering a confession. He doesn’t make any references suggesting that he cooperated with a terror group or that the bombings were hate crimes in his video. His motives are still unclear but there is belief that he acted alone.