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| Austin Bomber Had a List of Other Potential Targets | Austin Bomber Had a List of Other Potential Targets |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| AUSTIN, Tex. — Mark Conditt, who terrorized this city for nearly three weeks with a series of deadly bombings, left behind evidence of potential future targets before he killed himself on Wednesday, a law enforcement official said on Friday. | |
| Officials were examining these future targets as part of the investigation. The official declined to describe these targets in detail, but said they were a mix of locations that had no common thread linking them. | Officials were examining these future targets as part of the investigation. The official declined to describe these targets in detail, but said they were a mix of locations that had no common thread linking them. |
| On Wednesday, Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the future targets included residences. “They found a list of residences that they had to assume may have been utilized as future targets,” Mr. McCaul said. | On Wednesday, Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the future targets included residences. “They found a list of residences that they had to assume may have been utilized as future targets,” Mr. McCaul said. |
| On Friday, law enforcement officials said they were still evaluating evidence and leads from the public in an effort to build a timeline of the bomber’s activities. But they appeared to be learning little about Mr. Conditt’s motives. | On Friday, law enforcement officials said they were still evaluating evidence and leads from the public in an effort to build a timeline of the bomber’s activities. But they appeared to be learning little about Mr. Conditt’s motives. |
| “I think everybody is searching for answers,” said Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, who said the authorities were focused on learning what had compelled Mr. Conditt to act and whether he had any accomplices. | “I think everybody is searching for answers,” said Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, who said the authorities were focused on learning what had compelled Mr. Conditt to act and whether he had any accomplices. |
| “Obviously the questions — the big ‘why’ questions as well as the smaller ‘why’ questions, of globally, what precipitated this and what he was trying to do, but also the whys of why this person or that person or that house,” Mr. Adler said. “And we don’t have answers to those questions.” | “Obviously the questions — the big ‘why’ questions as well as the smaller ‘why’ questions, of globally, what precipitated this and what he was trying to do, but also the whys of why this person or that person or that house,” Mr. Adler said. “And we don’t have answers to those questions.” |
| Over three weeks, the authorities said, Mr. Conditt placed or mailed six explosive devices, triggering five explosions that killed two people, injured several more and left Austin feeling like a city under siege. One package shipped from Austin exploded in Schertz, Tex., about 65 miles south. Mr. Conditt’s activities came to a fiery end early Wednesday morning when, the police said, he detonated another explosive device in the sport utility vehicle he was driving as law enforcement agents pursued him. | |
| In Austin on Friday, a sense of relief and a slow return to normalcy was mixed with lingering unease over how Mr. Conditt had selected the recipients of the package bombs. Both of the men killed in the explosions, Anthony Stephan House, 39, and Draylen Mason, 17, were black, and some residents wondered if Mr. Conditt had intentionally chosen African-American victims. (Another bomb injured a Hispanic woman, and an additional bomb was placed in a largely white community.) | |
| Mr. Adler, the mayor, said “there’s just not enough data points to know” whether Mr. Conditt was driven by racial animus to target minorities. | |
| “I don’t think we know how he picked the addresses or locations that he sent packages to,” Mr. Adler said. “So I’m not sure it would be accurate to say he was targeting. We don’t know the answer to that, is my understanding.” | “I don’t think we know how he picked the addresses or locations that he sent packages to,” Mr. Adler said. “So I’m not sure it would be accurate to say he was targeting. We don’t know the answer to that, is my understanding.” |
| Police said a roughly 25-minute recording discovered on Mr. Conditt’s phone did not explain why he chose the addresses where he placed or intended to send his bombs. But it did provide a dark glimpse into Mr. Conditt’s mind-set in the hours before his death. | Police said a roughly 25-minute recording discovered on Mr. Conditt’s phone did not explain why he chose the addresses where he placed or intended to send his bombs. But it did provide a dark glimpse into Mr. Conditt’s mind-set in the hours before his death. |
| “I wish I were sorry, but I am not,” Mr. Conditt said on the recording, according to The Austin American-Statesman, which cited law enforcement sources familiar with his statements. | |
| The Statesman reported that Mr. Conditt had called himself a “psychopath” and said he would blow himself up inside a busy McDonald’s if he thought law enforcement was drawing near. | The Statesman reported that Mr. Conditt had called himself a “psychopath” and said he would blow himself up inside a busy McDonald’s if he thought law enforcement was drawing near. |
| In Pflugerville, Tex., the Austin suburb where Mr. Conditt grew up and lived, there was no sign of the officers who had surged into the neighborhood earlier in the week. | In Pflugerville, Tex., the Austin suburb where Mr. Conditt grew up and lived, there was no sign of the officers who had surged into the neighborhood earlier in the week. |
| Police barriers were removed from the yellowish-gold frame house that Mr. Conditt partly restored with his father after the family bought the house about two years ago. Neighbors said Mr. Conditt had lived there for at least a year. | Police barriers were removed from the yellowish-gold frame house that Mr. Conditt partly restored with his father after the family bought the house about two years ago. Neighbors said Mr. Conditt had lived there for at least a year. |
| The 1950s-era house appeared unoccupied Friday morning, its front door and windows sealed off with plywood. A deteriorating shed that may have been built as a garage was littered with garden tools, flower pots, cans of white paint and a discarded toilet. | The 1950s-era house appeared unoccupied Friday morning, its front door and windows sealed off with plywood. A deteriorating shed that may have been built as a garage was littered with garden tools, flower pots, cans of white paint and a discarded toilet. |
| A weight rack at the front of the shed held nearly 20 barbell plates, from 25 pounds to 45 pounds. About a dozen shirts, sizes small and medium, were still on hangers and stacked atop a large, empty red toolbox. | A weight rack at the front of the shed held nearly 20 barbell plates, from 25 pounds to 45 pounds. About a dozen shirts, sizes small and medium, were still on hangers and stacked atop a large, empty red toolbox. |
| Two bicycles were parked on a porch at the rear of the house. | Two bicycles were parked on a porch at the rear of the house. |
| The mayor of Pflugerville, Victor Gonzales, 69, lives about two blocks from Mr. Conditt’s home. He said he and other residents were still coming to grips with the news that their city had been home to the Austin serial bomber. | The mayor of Pflugerville, Victor Gonzales, 69, lives about two blocks from Mr. Conditt’s home. He said he and other residents were still coming to grips with the news that their city had been home to the Austin serial bomber. |
| “I feel somewhat that Pflugerville has been hurt by this incident and the fact the bomber lived in Pflugerville,” Mr. Gonzales said. “I think this kind of sets a little bit of a crack in the dam, so to speak. Maybe we need to go back, re-evaluate that quality that we want to have in Pflugerville.” | “I feel somewhat that Pflugerville has been hurt by this incident and the fact the bomber lived in Pflugerville,” Mr. Gonzales said. “I think this kind of sets a little bit of a crack in the dam, so to speak. Maybe we need to go back, re-evaluate that quality that we want to have in Pflugerville.” |