The man suspected of planting four bombs in the Texas capital this month that killed two people and injured four others was an unemployed college dropout who doesn’t appear to have left much of a trail online aside from some 2012 blog posts about gay marriage and other topics.
Authorities say Mark Anthony Conditt blew himself up in a motel parking lot overnight as a SWAT team approached his SUV. Police haven’t publicly released Conditt’s name, but a law enforcement official who had been briefed on the investigation identified Conditt as the suspect on the condition of anonymity because the official hadn’t been authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Conditt grew up in Pflugerville, a suburb just northeast of Austin where he was still living after moving out of his parents’ home. It’s not far from the site of the first of the four package bombings, a March 2 explosion that killed a 39-year-old man, Anthony House , though it’s unknown if Conditt knew any of the victims and authorities said the motive for the attacks remained unclear.
Authorities released few details about the suspect, aside from his age, that he was white and that he was apparently unemployed.
But online postings indicate he was home-schooled. He later attended Austin Community College from 2010 to 2012, but he did not graduate, according to a college spokeswoman. He worked for a time at an area manufacturing company and Gov. Greg Abbott told KXAN-TV in Austin that Conditt had no criminal record.
Citing a high-ranking law enforcement official, the Austin American-Statesman reported that authorities had identified the suspect based largely on information, including security video, gleaned after he sent an explosive device from an Austin-area FedEx store.
Police warned Wednesday of the possibility that more bombs had yet to be found.
“We don’t know where this suspect has spent his last 24 hours, and therefore we still need to remain vigilant to ensure that no other packages or devices have been left to the community,” Manley said.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler thanked law enforcement for their work in bringing down the suspect and urged residents to continue to report anything that appeared suspicious or out of place.
Isaac Figueroa, 26, said he and his brother heard sirens and helicopters early Wednesday in the area and drove toward them, then cut through nearby woods on foot after they hit a police roadblock.
Figueroa said they saw a sport utility vehicle that was pinned between vehicles and “looked like it had been rammed off the road.” He said he saw police deploy a robot to go examine the Jeep.
Conditt’s aunt released a statement on behalf of the family, CNN reported.
“We are devastated and broken at the news that our family could be involved in such an awful way,” the network quoted the statement as saying. “We had no idea of the darkness that Mark must have been in.”
We are thrilled to hear that they found the suspect, we just wish there was more of an explanation versus him taking himself out in such a cowardly way versus facing the people.
