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Austin Bombing Suspect Killed Himself in Explosion as SWAT Approached

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: 2) by NewNic on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:12PM (1 child)

    by NewNic (6420) on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:12PM (#656207) Journal

    I wondered if I would become one of the victims. Was a bit nervous the one day during the rampage that I had to gas up my car, staring into nearby wooded areas and shrubbery, watching for furtive movement. And I kept moving about, cleaning my windows and such, to make myself a slightly harder target. Yes, there was a chance, but I realized that the sniper was only able to off a very few people per day at most, with a final body count of 17 deaths and 10 injuries,

    You are demonstrating one of the factors that has caused bad policy decisions: the inability to rationally analyse risk. Your risk of dying by being shot by the DC sniper while filling your tank was probably far lower than your risk of dying in a car accident during the remained of your journey. You appear to have been at least partially aware of the relative risks, but most people are usually not.

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  • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday March 22 2018, @10:26AM

    by deimtee (3272) on Thursday March 22 2018, @10:26AM (#656542) Journal

    He wasn't irrational. By his own analysis (I'm not going to double-check his figures) being shot by the sniper was a one in a million risk. One in four million of dying on the rest of the trip is only one fifth of the total risk of those trips. Four fifths of the risk is the sniper.
    (Actually, I do distrust his figures. The one in a million figure should be spread across however many trips he took while the sniper was active. (To be even more painfully correct it should be spread across the average number of trips potential victims took during the period of time the sniper was active.))

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