Fifth package bomb goes off in Texas, injures one at FedEx site
Serial bomber strikes again. This time device explodes in a FEDEX facility.......
AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO, Texas, March 20 (Reuters) - A homemade bomb blew up at a FedEx Corp distribution center early on Tuesday injuring one person, officials said, the fifth explosion in the state this month. It was bound for Austin, the site of four other bombings.
Officials did not say if they believed the device, which exploded at the FedEx facility near San Antonio, was the work of a "serial bomber" who police feared may be responsible for the four earlier devices, which killed two people and injured six others.
The first three were parcel bombs left on residential doorsteps, while the fourth on Sunday was apparently set off by a trip wire. Police warned that the latest bomb had a more sophisticated design than the others.
The package exploded shortly after midnight local time (0500 GMT) at a distribution facility in Schertz, Texas, outside San Antonio, about 65 miles (105 km) south of Austin, the San Antonio Fire Department said on Twitter.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene and investigating, fire officials said. They did not give the address for the package.
“We are investigating it as being possibly related to our open investigation,” FBI spokeswoman Michelle Lee told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper. “We can’t know for sure until we have an opportunity to look at the evidence itself.”
The wounded employee, who was not identified, was taken to a hospital with injuries that officials described as non life-threatening. About 75 people were working at the facility at the time, fire officials said.Police did not immediately say if the explosion appeared to be linked to the four others. The first three were parcel bombs dropped off in front of homes on Austin's east side, with the fourth an apparent trip wire device that went off on the city's west side on Sunday.
The four devices were similar in construction, suggesting they were the work of the same bomb maker, officials said.
FedEx officials could not be reached immediately comment.
The first two bombs killed black men and investigators believed that the third, which injured a Latina woman, may have been intended for a black family's home, police said, raising the possibility they were a hate crime.
Sunday's trip wire bomb, which injured two white men, went off shortly after police made a rare public call to the suspect to explain his motives.
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A Unabomber wannabe? I wonder what is motivating this? Seems like targeting black,s but others are being injured. Obviously someone with a lot of hate built up. Hope they find a way to catch this person quickly.
I suppose these could be racially motivated attacks .. but I suspect it is a bit early to speculate on a motive .. 2 blacks, 1 Latino and 2 whites does not targeting of prominent black families make. I read what the NAACP has had to say, along with other comment regarding these attacks being hate crimes - I just do not see how at this stage in the investigation that a motive is even being entertained .. could be just me though.
Agreed. Seems like someone that hates a lot of people-like everyone. Not usre what is motivating this, I hope the police and whoever else is investigsting, can find some clues that will lead to an arrest. I read where the police are asking the bomber to explain himself. You never know, it might work, dependent on what the bomber sees as his/her 'needs'. Hard to imagine anyone but an unbalanced individual doing this.
Do they know who is doing it? I read there is a suspect.
From the various articles I have read law enforcement 'suspects' a serial bomber, 'suspects' all bombing are related etc .. Sunday the bombing suspect was urged to surrender - but I do not think there is a person of interest on police radar as of yet...
Thanks!
A manifesto is not uncommon for those that commit crimes such as this .. the only way the Unabomber was caught, was through his manifesto. Those that make bombs are a different breed of cat..
This is an interesting read..
Good morning XD
Younger or older, not sure, but yes a brother finally identified Ted's writings. Scary part there .. is that I had brief conversation with Ted on 2 occasions guest bartending in Lincoln for a friend of mine...
He seemed like a reclusive eccentric homeless kind of person .. that had found himself a shack to crash in - would never ever have thought he would/could harm someone!!
Bundy had freaky f'n eyes! Do not see how he was seen as non threatening - pictures of him creep me out..
Yet you are correct, the most prolific killers were not seen as threats .. look at Dohmer - cops even returned one of his victims to him!
Bundy and Gracy were caught though. If they weren't nobody would know their names.
The Golden State Killer, for example.
I'm hoping that the Fed-ex facility caught whoever dropped the package off on their cameras. A very sick individual!
Yea, I was wondering how it got there and that they should have some security footage.
I see. I'm curious though maybe you know. If this package was put on a conveyor truck for delivery to Austin would it not have been scanned in some way? Maybe leading to the exact location of drop off?
One can hope they are able to backtrack it. If the bomber is using an account, then they shold be able to track that back. If he dropped it off in person, let's hope there's video. All it takes is somethign small to trip somoene up.....remember the Son of Sam? It was a parking ticket that got him......
I sure hope so too!
There are so many Closed Circuit TV cameras in so many places now. Even outside buildings. Its getting a lot more difficult to get away with crimes like this.
Looks like they did just that.....using closed circuit, they backtracked the guy and confronted him and he detonated another package. Hope he burns in hell. I wonder if they will be able to determine a motivation?
Looks like he made himself the last victim, so we'll probably never know his motivations
Indeed. I say it all the time. No matter where you go or what you do assume somebody is watching you.
This is scary stuff
Certainly is. Echoes of the Unabomber, but he was all over the place, not concetrated in one city.
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From what I have seen the bomber has at least some level of expertise, you don't deliver these things comfortably which can be set off with little movement as well as the ones with trip wires. Is that knowledge from military experience or is the sick bastard a god reader? Why do some killers get delight from targeting people totally unknown to them? It must be some sense of empowering or just morbid glee. White supremacists generally bully their way around and lack the sophistication in evidence .
Probably an E.O.D. technician
Or a munitions troop, or a science major......
The science major would need a background in chemistry, mechanical engineering, and physics
Ted Kaczynski (Unibomber) managed just fine with mathematics degrees.
One doesn't need training for such things, just a reasonable amount of intelligence, skill and a shitpot of crazy..
Scary huh?
I was thinking along the lines of Ted Kaczinsky........no military training and he got away with it for years, only reason he got caught? His brother recognized his writings. Are there others out there like him? I guess we'll find out......
You might be right...but so far no one even has a Clue!
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Texan and Atheist: Stop it. Your speculation tailored to fit your political beliefs is silly in the extreme. Stop introducing politics into everything around you without an inkling of proof.
This is not the place to carry out whatever political crap you feel the need to get off oyur chest. There are plenty of other articles to do that on, just look at the front page.
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What part of stop it do you not get? Knock it off. If you can't speak ot the article, don't speak at all.
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A. Mac. Stop it. Your speculation tailored to fit your political beliefs is silly in the extreme. Stop introducing politics into everything around you without an inkling of proof.
I don't give a shit if this person is left or right, just that they are caught before anyone else is killed.
Thank you, Lady in Black.
IMO, this person is highly skilled in bomb making. Different types of bombs with one being a trip wire bomb shows that this isn't some person making bombs from ''bombs for dummies'' book.
Hopefully they'll get this person soon before any more lives are lost or people are wounded.
I dont know what kind of bomb making lessons are available online, but I would think one could learn to do just about anything from online instruction.
The issue wouldn't be learning how to do it, it would be trial and error afterwards and practice. The bomber may live rural or remote and have room to blow shit up in his "backyard". We also don't know how long he has been planning this, and how many hundreds of hours may be going into the preparation. They just don't know yet.
Many amateur bomb makers have accidentally blown themselves up. Have a few scars myself.
Making fireworks not IEDs.
Ditto.
I actually agree with almost everyone here, I think this sets everyone on edge. I do want to say that this is a clear reason why we all need to be careful before we smear and malign our security and justice institutions. We must be able to believe they are above the clusterf#@k and not drag them into partisan politics. This involves the foundations that keep us safe and functioning.
I certainly hope they catch whoever is responsible ASAP. While I do have issues with law enforcement personnel and practices from time to time (civil asset forfeiture being the biggest), overall I support our law enforcement institutions and trust them to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. I hate this narrative out there lately that somehow law enforcement personnel are unable to do their jobs in an objective fashion based upon their political views. IMO they are all operating without political bias until proven otherwise.
People a reminder.
The seeder gets to define the scope of a seed, and not the posters. Gary was within his right to say what was the reasonable scope of the article. Declaring politics off limit, especially with the lack of any evidence to that, is a reasonable request.
Is that last post of mine ok? Never sure the parameters.
Yes, of course. The problem I was dealing with was people trying to attribute the bomber to a political side when there was zero evidence on either direction and it is why I called out both sides for doing it.
At least you are okay with chicken on a donut though. That’s on topic.
As it made no claims about the bomber that couldn't be supported, I took it for what it was-humor.
Another explosion in Austin at a Goodwill. My heart goes out to all who live there.
They really need to catch this/these terrorist fuckers.
Morning news from Round Rock TX...Suspected bomber blows himself up as police close in on him.
I hope he left something in that motel room to tell the authorities what motivated him