Austin Cops Think They Know Mailing Site of FedEx Explosive

It's possible the person who mailed it is on surveillance video
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 20, 2018 2:11 PM CDT
Austin Cops Zero In on FedEx Link, Hope for a Break
An employee wrapped in a blanket talks to a police officer after she was evacuated at a FedEx distribution center in Schertz, Texas.   (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Austin cops have been looking for a break in the city's bombing spree, and they're hoping Tuesday morning's explosion at a FedEx facility will provide one. The Tuesday explosion happened at a shipping facility about an hour away from Austin in Schertz. But police think somebody sent the package to Schertz from a FedEx Office store in the Austin suburb of Sunset Valley, reports the American-Statesman. Better yet, the office store has no drop-off option, meaning the person who mailed the package needed to go inside, and thus could be on the store's surveillance video. The package exploded on a conveyor belt at the Schertz facility, though it was supposed to be shipped back out to an unspecified address in Austin. A nearby employee suffered ringing in her ears, but that was the extent of injuries.

The store in Sunset Valley is near the location of Sunday night's bombing that injured two men. Authorities can't say for sure whether the Schertz explosive is linked to the four earlier bombs, but Austin police were investigating on that likelihood. One other development that has apparently fizzled: Police initially said they found a second, unexploded device at the Schertz FedEx facility, which could have provided insights into who was putting the bombs together. However, police later backtracked, saying San Antonio police chief William McManus "misspoke" with those comments, per the Washington Post. "There is no secondary device at the Schertz facility," says a spokesperson. (More Austin stories.)

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