Austin Police Chief Brian Manley confirmed that the Austin bomber had killed himself after SWAT teams swooped on his car (Picture: EPA)

Police today confirmed that the Austin bomber killed Mark Anthony Conditt himself after detonating a bomb when a SWAT team approached him.

Chief Brian Manley said the 24-year-old white man’s motive was still unknown, amid earlier claims the attacks were race-motivated.

They tracked Conditt down after witness reports and followed his car to a hotel where he was staying in Round Rock, close to the scene where he blew himself up.

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The Texas city is now in fear of more bombs going off after police conceded that they didn’t know the suspect’s whereabouts for the last 24 hours.




Chief Manley said that surveillance teams were watching the killer’s hotel, waiting for specialist ballistic vehicles to arrive.

However, the suspect – who is not being named until his next of kin have been notified – left the hotel so they started following him.

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AUSTIN BOMBING SUSPECT IS DEAD. Great job by law enforcement and all concerned! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2018

As a SWAT team approached he set off the bomb causing ‘significant’ injuries to his body and injuring a police officer.

It is not known if he was fleeing police or on his way to plant another bomb when he killed himself in his car.

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It is being reported that the suspect was tracked down using his mobile phone activity, security tapes and receipts from shops.

The key clue is said to have been based on the FedEx package that the sent. He was also identified by his Google search history and his IP address.

The motive of the Austin bomber is currently unknown and investigations are continuing.

Moments before his apparent death, the FBI issued pictures of a man believed to be a suspect dropping a package off at a FedEx facility.

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The Austin bomber has been killed as SWAT teams approached him (Picture: CBS Austin)

The suspect was allegedly tracked down through his mobile phone, CCTV and receipts

He was white and was believed to be wearing a wig as he left the parcel, suspected to contain a bomb.

Investigators have been pursuing a suspected serial bomber in Austin since the first explosion on March 2.

A 39-year old man was killed. A 17-year-old boy was killed and two women were injured in two separate blasts on March 12.

On Sunday, two men – ages 22 and 23 – were injured in a blast trigged by a tripwire. A worker at a FedEx distribution center was treated and released Tuesday morning after reporting ringing in her ears.

A Reddit user purporting to be the Austin bomber claimed responsibility on the website.

He wrote: ‘My intention is not to kill people. I am doing this simply because I want to watch the world burn.’

The account, under the username ‘austinbomber’ has now been suspended.

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A FedEx worker was injured in a blast that came less than two days after another bombing wounded two men on Sunday night in a quiet Austin neighbourhood.

It was triggered by a nearly invisible tripwire, suggesting a ‘higher level of sophistication’ than agents saw in three 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.



Authorities have not identified the two men who were hurt on 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.

Police described the men’s injuries as significant and both remain in hospital in a stable condition. Mr Grote said his grandson was in a lot of pain.

Police confirmed they were involved in a shooting and will be holding a press conference later (Picture: CBS Austin)

On the night of the bombing, one of the victims was riding a bike in the street and the other was on a pavement 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.’

Mr Grote said his son, who lives about 100 yards from the blast, heard the explosion and raced outside to find both of the young men bleeding profusely.

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

The tripwire heightened fears 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-neighbour kind of stuff.’

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Several bombs were set off around Austin, Texas, but the suspect is now believed to have killed himself (Picture: AP)

Authorities repeated prior warnings about not touching unexpected packages and issued new ones to be wary of any stray objects 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, the 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 city.

Local and state police and hundreds of federal agents are investigating. The reward for information leading to an arrest has climbed to 115,000 dollars (£82,000).

‘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.

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 motorway.

The differences in location, the lack of a motive and other unknowns make it harder to draw conclusions about any possible pattern.