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Austin Bombing Suspect Bought Some Materials at Home Depot Austin Bombing Suspect Bought Some Materials at Home Depot
(35 minutes later)
PFLUGERVILLE, Tex. — An intense, three-week manhunt in a series of bombings that has terrorized Austin, Tex., came to an explosive end on Wednesday when the suspect, a 23-year-old unemployed man who had purchased bomb-making materials at a local Home Depot, drove into a ditch and blew himself up. ROUND ROCK, Tex. — It was not much — surveillance footage in and near an Austin area FedEx store showing a man in a disguise dropping off packages. But for the cadre of investigators from the F.B.I. and other local, state and federal agencies who had been hunting a mysterious and prolific bomb-maker, it was what they needed — their first big break.
The suspect, Mark A. Conditt, whom authorities had identified via surveillance footage and other clues left behind in one of the country’s worst serial bombing cases, was dead at the scene, the authorities said. Up to that point in a two-week investigation, officials had never laid eyes on the man they believed was responsible for terrorizing the Texas capital since March 2. In the security footage, a red pickup driven by the suspect could be seen driving away. Because the authorities did not have a license plate number, they began combing through records — all of them, for every vehicle with the same make and model in Texas. Investigators then began trying to match those records with a white male, possibly in his 20s.
[Here’s what we know about the bombing suspect, Mark Anthony Conditt.] And there was another, more unorthodox clue from the surveillance video: The suspect’s hands. He was wearing pink construction gloves. Investigators determined the same type of gloves were available at Home Depot, and they began going through hours of surveillance video from Home Depot locations in and around Austin. They got a hit: security video from one store appeared to show the same suspect.
Officials said Mr. Conditt’s motive was not immediately clear, but at an afternoon news conference, the Austin police chief, Brian Manley, revealed the existence of “about a 25-minute recording where he talks about what he has done.” Officials had now whittled down the number of potential license plates and began tailing a handful of people. One of them turned out to be Mark Conditt — the man that the authorities now believe was the Austin serial bomber.
Chief Manley called Mr. Conditt’s recording a confession. In a matter of hours, Mr. Conditt’s bombing spree, as well as his life, would be over. As SWAT officers closed to where investigators had tracked him to the town of Round Rock outside Austin, Mr. Conditt — a 23-year-old man from the Austin suburbs with no criminal record — ignited one of his homemade devices from inside his pickup early Wednesday and killed himself before he could be apprehended. The dramatic and deadly trail of his series of homemade explosions that left two people dead and injuring four others ended in a ditch off Interstate 35 in Round Rock, with the windows of his vehicle blown out and his motive as unknown as ever.
“He does not at all mention anything about terrorism nor does he mention anything about hate,” Chief Manley said, “but instead, it is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life that led him to his point.” In the hours after Mr. Conditt’s death, a portrait of the bomber, his bombs and his techniques emerged, along with the story of how he was finally stopped — the lucky breaks, investigative ingenuity and technology that helped catch one of the most elusive serial bombers in recent decades.
In the video, Chief Manley said, Mr. Conditt talked about the bombs that he made and the differences between them. “He described seven explosive devices and we have identified” all of the devices, the chief said. By the end of the day Wednesday, police had another tool: A 25-minute confession, left on the suspect’s phone, in which he attempted to describe his odyssey. “It is the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life that led him to this point,” the Austin police chief, Brian Manley, said.
A friend from Pflugerville, Jeremiah Jensen, said Mr. Conditt at times “was a very intense person.” Interviews with political leaders briefed on the inquiry, along with briefings from investigators and a federal law enforcement source, shed light on an investigation that saw hundreds of federal agents descend on Austin, gathering and reconstructing bomb fragments, interviewing witnesses and gathering video footage. “We haven’t seen an effort like this in many, many years,” said Christopher H. Combs, special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s office in San Antonio.
“He could sometimes get frustrated. There were times he could get angry over a misunderstanding,” Mr. Jensen said. Officials said Mr. Conditt planted one of his bombs in the upscale Travis Country neighborhood of Austin on Sunday, and tied the bomb’s tripwire to a “Caution: Children At Play” sign — a sign that he himself put next to the sidewalk and that he bought, along with four others, at Home Depot. Investigators used his cellphone data to put him at the scene of explosions in Austin and also got his Google search history. But officials said the crucial first break came when Mr. Conditt mailed the packages at the FedEx store earlier this week.
Mr. Conditt was a home-schooled student who did not complete a degree from a community college and, according to the authorities, had “homemade explosive material” in his house. He described himself on a blog as “not that politically inclined” but expressed conservative views on issues like same-sex marriage and the death penalty. Friends and neighbors described him as a loner. “When he left the FedEx office, he got into a red Mazda truck that had been called in by others as potential leads,” Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, said. “And then they got the license plate and from there were able to get the cellphone number.” From there, he said, agents could track the cellphone directly, “as a location device.”
A city that has been on edge for weeks as several makeshift bombs exploded without warning — on doorsteps, on a sidewalk and, most recently, in a FedEx shipping center — saw the long-running drama coming to an end. But authorities warned that with the bomber’s obviously extensive preparations, it might not be entirely over. Mr. Conditt’s suicide left more questions than answers about who he was, how he became a bomb-maker and why he did it. But Chief Manley seemed to ease worries about more bombs when he said all seven had been counted for. Law enforcement officials had worried that Mr. Conditt might have placed or sent additional bombs in the hours before he was killed, as the unease and anxiety that defined his two-week attack lingered long after his death. And officials said they were still looking into whether Mr. Conditt had any accomplices.
“Two very important things before we can put this to rest. One, we don’t know if there are any other bombs out there and if so, how many and where they may be,” Gov. Greg Abbott said on Fox News. In the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, where Mr. Conditt grew up and lived, a steady fear persisted throughout the day, even after his death. Neighbors were forced to evacuate from the area surrounding the house Mr. Conditt shared with two roommates after investigators found explosive materials here. The Austin police said they had questioned Mr. Conditt’s two roommates. One had been eleased; the other was still being questioned as of Wednesday afternoon. Neither roommate was identified. Outside Mr. Conditt’s parents home in Pflugerville, Detective David Fugitt with the Austin police said Mr. Conditt’s family was cooperating and was allowing investigators to search the property, including several backyard sheds.
“Second, very importantly, we need to go throughout the day to make sure that we rule out whether there was anybody else involved in this process,” he said. “We don’t have any information to believe that the family had any knowledge of these events,” Detective Fugitt said.
Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local law enforcement evacuated several blocks around Mr. Conditt’s house in Pflugerville, and searched it for explosives and other evidence. Pflugerville is a tranquil Austin suburb nearly 20 miles northeast. It is a spacious town of 59,000 that has long made its unusual name with the silent first letter part of its charm, as visitors notice when they pass such businesses as Pfast Lube. At times on Wednesday, Mr. Conditt’s hometown was transformed. Military-style SWAT vehicles sped down the wide avenues. Neighbors and friends said they were stunned that Mr. Conditt was the serial bomber.
“There was componentry and the homemade explosive material that we found in the house,” Fred Milanowski, the A.T.F. special agent in charge of the Houston office, said at a news conference. “He always seemed like he was very polite,” said Jeff Reeb, 75, who has lived next door to Mr. Conditt’s parents for about 17 years. “It’s extremely shocking. My summation is it doesn’t make any sense. It just doesn’t make any sense, which, most of these things like this, don’t make any sense.”
Mr. Milanowski said law enforcement had cleared the house of “any completed devices” and was processing the evidence found inside. Mr. Conditt was a home-schooled student who had attended Austin Community College. He described himself on a blog as “not that politically inclined” but expressed conservative views on issues like gay marriage and the death penalty. Friends and neighbors described him as a loner.
“We have a reasonable level of certainty that there are no other devices in the public but we still want the public to be vigilant,” he said. “He was a nerd, always reading, devouring books and computers and things like that,” said Donna Sebastian Harp, who had known the Conditt family for nearly 18 years. “He was always kind of quiet.”
Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, said in an interview that Mr. Conditt bought at least some of his bomb-making supplies, including nails and wire, from a Home Depot in Pflugerville, a small town about 20 miles northeast of Austin where he lived. Mr. McCaul said Mr. Conditt had probably ordered battery packs online.
The crucial break for investigators, Mr. McCaul said, came when Mr. Conditt walked into a FedEx office to mail a package earlier this week.
“When he left the FedEx office, he got into a red Mazda truck that had been called in by others as potential leads,” Mr. McCaul said. “And then they got the license plate and from there were able to get the cellphone number. Once we got the name of the individual we could get the cellphone number. From there, tracking the cellphone itself, as a location device.”
Mr. McCaul said investigators have also found ”a list of residences that they had to assume may have been utilized as future targets.”
A federal criminal complaint charging Mr. Conditt with unlawful possession and transfer of a destructive device was filed on Tuesday night, the authorities said Wednesday, along with a warrant for his arrest.
Also on Wednesday, the Austin Police said they had detained Mr. Conditt’s two roommates. One was questioned and released; the other was still being questioned as of Wednesday afternoon. Neither roommate was identified.
Law enforcement authorities also spent hours closeted with Mr. Conditt’s parents in their white clapboard home with an American flag hanging outside.
“We do not understand what motivated him to do what he did,” Mr. Manley told reporters.
Mr. Conditt was a quiet, “nerdy” young man who came from a “tight-knit, godly family,” said Donna Sebastian Harp, who had known the family for nearly 18 years.
He was the oldest of four children who had all been home-schooled by their mother, Ms. Harp said, but he had also attended Austin Community College, although college officials said he did not complete a degree.
“He was always kind of quiet,” she said. “He was a nerd, always reading, devouring books and computers and things like that.”
She said there had never been any hints of violence, until Wednesday morning, when she received a text message from Mr. Conditt’s mother. It read, “Pray for our family. We are under attack” — a reference to a spiritual assault by Satan, Ms. Harp said.
The Conditt family is affiliated with Calvary Chapel of Austin, according to the church’s office manager, Dean Miller. It is an evangelical church that meets in a former grocery store in Pflugerville. Its members believe the Bible prohibits same-sex marriage.
It was not immediately clear how involved Mr. Conditt was in the church, but he argued against same-sex marriage in a post he wrote on a blog he created for a political science class at the community college.
“Political protection of a sexual practice is ludicrous,” Mr. Conditt wrote. “I do not believe it is proper to pass laws stating that homosexuals have ‘rights.’”
McKenna McIntosh, another student in the course, said Mr. Conditt’s views as reflected on his blog were “clear as day.” In a biography on the site, Mr. Conditt described himself as a conservative but said he was “not that politically inclined.” His six posts, which date from January to March 2012, included arguments in favor of the end of sex-offender registries and in support of the death penalty.
“Living criminals harm and murder, again,” he wrote, “executed ones do not.”
In the post, he pointed to Larry James Harper, a Texas fugitive who killed himself in 2001 as the police closed in after he escaped from prison. He compared him to another escapee, George Rivas, who was captured.
It seemed almost to foreshadow his own fate.
“If he had wanted or wished for death, he would have just shot himself, like his fellow Texas 7 escapee, Larry Harper, who committed suicide, rather than be captured and re-incarcerated,” Mr. Conditt wrote.
Detective David Fugitt with the Austin police said Mr. Conditt’s family was cooperating and was allowing investigators to search the property, including several backyard sheds.
“We had no idea of the darkness that Mark must have been in,” the family said in a statement published by CNN. “Our family is a normal family in every way. We love, we pray, and we try to inspire and serve others. Right now, our prayers are for the families who’ve lost loved ones, for those impacted in any way, and for the soul of our Mark. We are grieving and in shock.”
Real estate records show that Mr. Conditt and his father, William Conditt, bought a house together in Pflugerville in 2017, and family friends said the younger Mr. Conditt was remodeling it.
But neighbors said they saw little of him.
“I think he was pretty much a loner,” said Jay Schulze, a network engineer who lived about two blocks down, adding that Mr. Conditt spent most of his time with his parents.
Austin has been in the grip of the wave of attacks since March 2.
The first explosions hit African-American residents whose families are well-known in the black community, though two white men were injured by an explosive triggered by a tripwire on Sunday.
The suspect is believed to be responsible for at least six bombs that killed at least two people and wounded five. Four bombs detonated in various locations in Austin where they had been left. Another detonated at a FedEx distribution center in Schertz, Tex., near San Antonio, and a sixth was found, unexploded, in a FedEx facility near Austin’s airport.
The attacks began when a package bomb detonated on the porch of an Austin home, killing Anthony Stephan House, 39. That was followed 10 days later by two bombs that were found outside homes, one of which killed a 17-year-old man.The attacks began when a package bomb detonated on the porch of an Austin home, killing Anthony Stephan House, 39. That was followed 10 days later by two bombs that were found outside homes, one of which killed a 17-year-old man.
The first three bombs were apparently detonated when they were picked up or jostled. Later, a package bomb exploded outside another Austin home, set off by a tripwire. The bombs at the FedEx centers were found on Tuesday. The first three bombs were apparently detonated when they were picked up or jostled. Later, on Sunday, a package bomb exploded in the Travis Country neighborhood, set off by the tripwire. The fifth explosion occurred at a FedEx center in Schertz, Tex., outside San Antonio on Tuesday. Another bomb, this one unexploded, was found at another FedEx facility in Austin the same day.
The suspect’s vehicle was traced to a hotel in Round Rock, just north of Austin, Chief Manley said, where a SWAT team surreptitiously surrounded the hotel and called other specialized units. But the suspect drove away before those teams could arrive. “We do not understand what motivated him to do what he did,” Chief Manley told reporters.
Officers followed the suspect, who stopped in a ditch off Interstate 35, and SWAT officers approached the vehicle on foot. In a mere 19 days, the bombing sprees sparked fear across the Austin and San Antonio regions of Central Texas,evoking the nowhere-is-safe quality of the anthrax mailings of 2001 and the Washington sniper attacks of 2002. For a young man of 23 who did not complete a degree from Austin Community College, his devices and shifting methods as a serial bomber left some of the country’s most experienced federal explosives experts baffled early on in the investigation.
“The suspect detonated a bomb inside of the vehicle, knocking one officer back” and slightly injuring him, the police chief said. Another officer fired his gun at the vehicle. And yet, that change in his tactics is largely what led police to him.
Michael Luna, a guest at a Red Roof Inn near the confrontation, told a local news channel that he heard the explosion from the bomb, which sounded as if it had gone off 100 to 200 yards away, when he was smoking a cigarette in the parking lot. Mr. Luna, who said he had been in the military, said that the explosion sounded like two grenades going off at the same time, and that he heard a pop afterward that might have been a gunshot. His first three bombs were hidden in packages that were not mailed but instead placed on people’s doorsteps. His fourth was set off using a tripwire across the Travis Country sidewalk. But his fifth was different — he shipped it the Austin area FedEx store, which captured him on security video, wearing a baseball cap and a black T-shirt and standing at a counter, in addition to other surveillance video from the area. He shipped two package bombs there, and when one of them accidentally exploded at a FedEx center in the town of Schertz outside San Antonio, investigators traced the shipments back to the FedEx store, and, ultimately, to him.
The section of Interstate 35 near that confrontation was a traffic nightmare for hours as commuters moved at a glacial pace in the southbound lanes, many of them presumably unaware of what had happened. State troopers barred access at several ramps along that stretch of the highway. After that explosion at the FedEx facility in Schertz, investigators had turned Mr. Conditt from a person of into into the primary suspect. “Maybe for about 24 hours before his death, they were able to closely monitor him and his movements,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters.
By Wednesday morning, aerial video footage of the area from KVUE, a local television affiliate, showed a red pickup with blown-out windows next to a blue tarp, surrounded by investigators’ vehicles. Mr. Conditt’s red Ford Ranger truck was traced to a hotel in Round Rock, just north of Austin, Chief Manley said, where a SWAT team surreptitiously surrounded the hotel and called other specialized units.
But the suspect drove away before those teams could arrive. Officers followed the suspect, who stopped in a ditch off Interstate 35, and SWAT officers approached the vehicle on foot.
“The suspect detonated a bomb inside of the vehicle, knocking one officer back” and slightly injuring him, the police chief said. Another officer fired his gun at the vehicle. And investigators began the long process of trying to find the answer that wasn’t in the surveilance video: Why.