New video shows Austin bombing suspect blow up his car as police close in after chase
Newly released video from the Texas Department of Public Safety shows the blast that killed Mark Anthony Conditt, the suspect in a string of package bombings in and around Austin in March, which left two people dead and five others injured.
The package bombings captured the nation’s attention for three weeks in March, as five total packages blew up. One package went off on a man’s front porch, another was triggered by a tripwire and one even ignited at a FedEx facility in the town of Schertz, about an hour south of Austin, according to KXAN.
In the new video, Austin police SWAT vans can be seen sandwiching an SUV driven by Conditt in Round Rock, just north of Austin. One officer can be seen quickly getting out and striking the passenger side window of the car driven by Conditt three times.
“Vans made contact with him,” a DPS official says from a helicopter above the scene along the Interstate 35 frontage road.
Then, fire pours from the vehicle’s windows in a flash, pushing the officer backward while additional officers surround the vehicles with long guns drawn.
“Got an explosion. Got an explosion inside the vehicle,” the trooper in the helicopter says.
The officers knew Conditt was possibly armed with a bomb inside that vehicle, but ran toward the vehicle in an attempt to capture him alive, the Austin American-Statesmen reported.
Conditt’s death was ruled a suicide days after that final bomb went off, according to KEYE.
Authorities called Conditt, 23, “a very challenged young man,” according to CNN, and said he left behind a 28-minute confession video, which has not been released, according to the Statesman.
The video was released at Friday’s Texas Public Safety Commission meeting, along with about 10 minutes of clips from other air-assisted law enforcement operations.
This story was originally published September 1, 2018 at 1:48 PM with the headline "New video shows Austin bombing suspect blow up his car as police close in after chase."