A man suspected of being the bomber behind a series of explosions across central Texas blew himself up in a vehicle as a swat team approached, police have confirmed.
The suspect, identified by police as a 24-year-old white male, killed himself in Round Rock, a town 20 miles north of Austin, in a dramatic end to a siege of the Texas capital.
A number of devices have exploded in residential areas of Austin this month, killing two and injuring several, while a package destined for the Texan city exploded on a conveyor belt at a FedEx facility near on Tuesday.
Police previously said they believed the explosions were the work of a serial bomber.
Authorities had zeroed in on the suspect in the last 24 to 36 hours and located him at a hotel on Interstate 35 in the Austin suburb, Austin police chief Brian Manley said at a news conference.
They were waiting for ballistic vehicles to arrive when his vehicle began to drive away, Manley said. Authorities followed the vehicle, which stopped in a ditch on the side of the road, the police chief said.
When members of the swat team approached, the suspect detonated an explosive device inside the vehicle. The blast knocked back one officer, while a second officer fired his weapon, Manley said.
The suspect, who suffered significant injuries from the blast, was killed. Authorities identified him only as a 24-year-old white man and said it was too soon to say if the suspect had worked alone or what his motive was.
Isaac Figueroa, 26, said he and his brother heard sirens and helicopters early on Wednesday and drove toward them, then cut through nearby woods on foot after they hit a police roadblock. Figueroa said they saw a silver or gray Jeep Cherokee that was pinned between black and white vehicles and “looked like it had been rammed off the road”. He said he saw police deploy a robot to go examine the Jeep.
Manley said the suspect is believed to be responsible for all the major Austin bombings.
Fred Milanowski, an agent with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), said it was “hard to say” if the bombing suspect was acting alone.
“What we do know is we believe the same person built each one of these devices,” said Milanowski, the agent in charge of the Houston division of the ATF. “We are not 100% convinced there’s not other devices out there. We still want the public to be vigilant.”
Asked if the suspect built bombs before the Austin attacks, Milanowski said: “We know when he bought some of the components. It’s hard to say whether he was building along the way”
The first three bombs were triggered by people handling packages left overnight on doorsteps and not sent via the postal service or a private company. A 39-year-old man died on 2 March, followed by a 17-year-old boy who was killed in his kitchen on 12 March. Later that morning a 75-year-old woman was seriously hurt.
The two who died were black, and the woman Hispanic, prompting investigators and community leaders to raise racial hatred as a possible motive. However, another explosion on Sunday complicated the theory that the victims were targeted.
Two white men, aged 22 and 23, sustained serious injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening. At least one of the men had what looked like nails embedded in his knees. The affluent, leafy neighbourhood of Travis Country was locked down for much of Monday as police cordoned off streets and told residents to stay inside as local, state and federal investigators examined the scene.
Despite the deployment of hundreds of agents and $115,000 (£82,000) worth of rewards on offer for tips leading to an arrest, authorities had struggled to identify the suspect or suspects.
Austin mayor Steve Adler thanked law enforcement for their work in bringing down the suspect and urged residents to continue to report anything that appeared suspicious or out of place. “We’re just really relieved and just incredibly thankful for this army of law enforcement that has been in our community here for the last week or so,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show.
