Dramatic video shows Austin bombing suspect Mark Conditt’s detonating a final explosive as police close in. The first publicly released video of Texas police closing in on the suspect in a series of deadly Austin package bombings shows officers approaching his SUV before the vehicle explodes.
Aerial footage released Friday by the Texas Department of Public Safety comes five months after police say Conditt, 23, blew himself up inside the SUV along an interstate highway. The package bombings terrorized Austin for three weeks in March, killing two people and badly wounding four others.
At first, the camera fixes on a car that is pulling out of a parking space. “Air to ground, he’s on the move backing out now,” says a voice on the audio. The video continues to follow the car as the driver’s heads onto the I-35 feeder road, and Austin police vehicles catch up to it, and even ram it.
“Van’s made contact with him, van’s made contact with him,” the voice says. Then seconds later, an officer runs up the passenger side window of the car and begins to try to break it, before you see the flash of the explosion that killed the bomber. “Got an explosion, got an explosion inside the vehicle,” the voice on the DPS aviation video says.
Conditt, 23, was responsible for making seven devices, killing two people and wounding several others in Austin and near San Antonio over nearly three weeks. The series of bombs led to the deaths of two African-Americans and injured several others, including a Latina, raising fears of possible hate crimes.
Police later labeled the attacks domestic terrorism.
Authorities haven’t revealed a motive for the bombings. Police Chief Brian Manley told KEYE the Austin Police Department will release its own video of the incident once the grand jury is done reviewing it.
