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posted by takyon on Wednesday March 21 2018, @10:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the went-out dept.
Austin bomb suspect blows self up as SWAT team approached

The suspect in a spate of bombings that terrorized residents of Austin, Texas, died after detonating an explosive inside his vehicle as a SWAT team approached to apprehend him on the side of a highway, officials said.

Early Wednesday, authorities tracked the suspect — a 24-year-old white man — to a hotel in Round Rock, a city in the Austin metropolitan area, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told a news conference early Wednesday.

They tracked his vehicle until it pulled over on Interstate 35 and the suspect "detonated a bomb inside the vehicle, knocking one of our SWAT officers back and one of our officers fired on the vehicle as well," Manley said.

Austin serial bombings.

Also at CNN, BBC, and Bloomberg.

Previously: Two Injured in Fourth Package Bombing Incident this Month in Austin, Texas

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 21 2018, @11:33AM (5 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday March 21 2018, @11:33AM (#656047) Homepage
    I'm glad he did the honourable thing of being his own judge, jury and executioner. That will save the taxpayer a figure measured in the millions.

    Though quite why a cop thought it was necessary to fire randomly into what was left of a car which had exploded with enough force to knock over people who weren't in the car, I don't know. Just to make sure the perp was a little bit extra-dead, in case the explosion was missing a few joules of kinetic energy?
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:48PM (#656146)

    I'd wager an explosion like that is likely to cause quite an adrenaline spike and the cop wasn't 100% sure it wasn't a decoy. Brains usually don't work the best under an adrenal rush.

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:18PM (2 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:18PM (#656214)

    That's exactly what I thought upon reading the summary. Did he just accidentally fire because he already had his gun drawn, or did he get knocked over, then decide to get back up and shoot at it?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:01PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:01PM (#656248)

      Or its a cover story to account for the reports of hearing gunfire ...

      "It was a traumatic event, its natural for untrained observers to get the order wrong and claim to remember hearing the gunshots first."

      Maybe I'm too cynical when hearing the suspect conveniently killed himself instead of facing trial...

      • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 24 2018, @12:25AM

        by Grishnakh (2831) on Saturday March 24 2018, @12:25AM (#657327)

        What kind of beat cops are going to shoot a guy, then go messing with his bomb to set it off to look like the suspect blew himself up? That's just so ridiculously risky that it isn't plausible.

        Besides, if the guy has a bomb on him, then it's extremely unlikely he'd somehow beat the charges; he'd be going to prison for life, or probably get executed (this was TX, they execute tons of people there). Why would cops risk their careers, or their lives, to kill this guy unnecessarily?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:42PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:42PM (#656327)

    nervous reaction to, while having ones finger on a trigger they shouldn't have had it on to begin with, a loud noise they're untrained to deal with while being armed.