By Cecilia Lantz
At the beginning of March, in Austin, Texas, strange packages were found on the doorsteps of residents in the community, causing panic in the capital of Texas, after three of them exploded, killing two people.
After this tragedy, authorities asked the public to report any unannounced packages that have not come from official distributors. Soon after, police officers recorded 265 calls from citizens, reporting suspicious packages. Responding to all of the reported packages, police officers believe that the explosions could be linked.
Especially where the three packages exploded, calls from the reporters of the strange packages demonstrate fear and panic. It has been concluded that the bomber did not mail these specific packages, but physically placed the packages themselves on the victims’ front door steps.
In just 10 short days, the exploding packages have killed two people and injured three others with blows so powerful the rumbling shook houses several blocks away from the initial explosion. The first package to explode was on March 2, and the next two followed only a week later on the next Monday.
Authorities mentioned that the first two explosions detonated as soon as the victims picked them up, but the third did not detonate until it was carried into the house and opened.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler indicated that it was too early in the investigation to establish a reason for these bombings. However Chief Brian Manley of the Austin Police Department, at a news conference, mentioned that the possibility of the attacks being hate crimes or a terrorist act was not being ruled out by investigators. All of the victims were black or Hispanic.
However, as of March 21, it has been confirmed by officials that the suspect in the multiple attacks killed himself with an explosive device. When authorities found his body they also recovered his phone that had a 25 minute video confessing to building the explosive packages. The video did not contain reasoning for why he sent out these threats or why he chose the victims that he did.