Austin police said in March that serial bomber Mark Conditt blew himself up after a chase, and they’ve just released aircraft footage from the incident.
Video obtained by the Austin American-Statesman shows authorities going after an SUV. That comes to a sudden and literally explosive end. SWAT vans manage to box in the vehicle on the street, forcing it to an abrupt stop. An officer begins beating on the passenger side door of the SUV with a battering ram, but the vehicle just outright blows up.
“Got an explosion,” says dispatch. “Got an explosion inside the vehicle.”
Cops said Conditt blew himself up, though no officers were seriously injured in the blast.
That was the end of a 19 day spree in March. Police blame him for four bombings. 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House and 17-year-old musician Draylen Mason were killed in separate incidents. Police say both of them found a package left at their homes, according to CNN. These were bombs. A Hispanic woman was injured in a similar attack. At the time, people wondered if these were hate crimes, and well, the suspect ended up being white.
In any case, another bombing–this time at a rigged “children at play” sign–injured two caucasian men. The final victim was a FedEx employee hurt by a package that blew up on a conveyor belt. Cops later discovered a rigged package found at another FedEx facility, but they found this before it exploded, police said.
Investigators managed to track Conditt down because he made one big mistake, they said. He allegedly tried to mail two explosive packages through a FedEx location, and surveillance footage caught him wearing a baseball cat and a blonde wig. Police used this to track him down.
BOMBING SUSPECT captured on security camera.
Investigators have identified the suspect as Mark Anthony Conditt. https://t.co/UwpVVLu0Sj pic.twitter.com/EXN0kgzro1
— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) March 21, 2018
At time, Austin Police Chief Brian Maney said cops found Conditt’s cell phone in the remnants of the SUV, according to the Statesman. It contained a 25-minute video in which the alleged bomber discussed each of the seven bombs accounted for by authorities, Maney said. This case remains under investigation.
[Screengrab via Austin Police Department and Austin-American Statesman]
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