Update at 4:10pm:
(AP) – Austin’s police chief says package bombs caused both explosions in Texas’ capital city on Monday, making it three this month.
Police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference that the latest bombing injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman.
Manley says investigators believe that attack and one earlier Monday that killed a 17-year-old boy and injured a woman in her 40s are linked to a March 2 package bombing that killed a 39-year-old man in another neighborhood.
The chief said earlier that investigators were considering whether the attacks could be race-related because the first three victims were all black. He says they aren’t ruling anything out, but they are no longer “making the connection to a hate crime.”
Original story:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Police say their investigation of deadly package bombings at two Austin homes will try to determine if a hate crime was involved because the victims in both cases were black.
Police Chief Brian Manley said Monday that investigators hope to collect surveillance video from nearby homes to identify a suspect.
He says there’s currently no other evidence indicating a hate crime beyond the victims’ race.
He says the package that exploded Monday and the one that detonated on March 2 had been left on the front doorsteps and were not delivered by a mail service.
A 17-year-old boy was killed in Monday’s explosion and a woman injured. Authorities said earlier that the woman’s injuries were life-threatening, but Manley says she’ll survive.
A 39-year-old man was killed in the March 2 attack.
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11 a.m.
Authorities say a package that exploded inside of an Austin home, killing a teenager and wounding a woman, is linked to a deadly package sent to another home in Texas’ capital city earlier this month because they were both left on the front doorstep and not delivered by a mail service.
Austin police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference Monday that the U.S. Postal Service does not have a record of delivering a package to the Austin home where the explosion occurred Monday.
He says that package was brought into the kitchen where it detonated, killing a 17-year-old boy and injuring the woman.
The FBI is helping Austin police in the investigation.
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9:30 a.m.
A teenager has died and a woman is seriously injured after a package exploded at a home in Austin, marking the second such explosion this month at a home in Texas’ capital city.
The package detonated early Monday. Police say the teen died at the scene, while the woman was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police say the woman is in her 40s, but they haven’t released any other information.
Authorities are investigating whether the explosion is linked to a similar blast on March 2 that killed a 39-year-old man. Both explosions occurred in the early-morning hours.
Police are investigating that incident as a suspicious death. Investigators haven’t released information about the device or possible suspects.
The FBI is helping Austin police in the investigation.
