Police released surveillance photo images of Austin, Texas serial bomber Mark Anthony Conditt, 24, who blew himself up as a SWAT team approached his car on I-35 in Austin early Wednesday morning.
Conditt was captured on CCTV wearing a disguise as he mailed two packages at a FedEx office in Austin.
The video footage at a FedEx store shows Conditt arriving carrying 2 boxes and wearing a blond wig to disguise himself. One of the boxes later exploded at another FedEx facility, injuring one worker.
Manley said police used information gathered from the FedEx CCTV footage, cell phone data, and store receipts to zero in on Conditt, whose car was found parked at a hotel in the Austin suburb of Round Rock early Wednesday morning.
The serial bomber killed himself by detonating an explosive device inside his car after pulling over on Interstate 35.
Authorities tracked his vehicle from a hotel in Round Rock, a city in Austin, onto the interstate. He pulled over and detonated a bomb inside his vehicle as a SWAT team approached the car, according to Austin Police Chief Brian Manley.
Manley said a SWAT team “tried to apprehend him on the side of a highway,” when an explosive device went off inside the vehicle, knocking one officer back. The officer sustained “minor injuries,” Manley said.
Another officer who fired his weapon was placed on administrative duty as standard policy in an officer-involved shooting.
Conditt began his bombing spree on March 2nd when he hand delivered a package to the front porch of a northeast Austin home. The resident of the home, 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House, was killed when he picked up the package.
10 days later, on March 12, Draylen Mason, 17, was killed and his mother was wounded after they opened a package that was left on their doorstep.
A 75-year-old Hispanic woman was severely injured when a package bomb exploded at her home a few hours later.
Because the first two victims were black, residents speculated that the bombings were racially motivated.
Over 500 federal, state and local law enforcement officers joined in the manhunt for the suspect.
Police are cautioning Austin residents to be wary of suspicious packages that may contain explosives.
