AUSTIN, TX — A third package explosion has left two people dead and two injured in Austin, Texas, in the past 10 days. The incidents share similarities and authorities suspect they are connected, police said.
One incident occurred Monday morning, another Monday afternoon. They followed one on March 2. In at least two of the incidents, a resident retrieved a package that blew up when it was opened.
Two packages were not delivered via any mail services and both homes are those of African Americans. A 17-year-old boy died Monday and a woman was transported with non-life-threatening injuries. Another male died from his injuries in the March 2 explosion.
“This type of crime will not be tolerated” in Austin, Police Chief Brian Manley said.
Both cases are now being investigated as homicides, Manley said during a news conference Monday.
Manley strongly urged residents in a tweet to be on the lookout for suspicious packages and to alert authorities immediately.
“If you’ve received a package that has been left on your doorstep or left in your yard or left on your driveway that you were not expecting or that was not from someone you know, then give us a call,” Manley said.
Local police, as well as agencies including the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are working on the case.
A Capital Metro bus driver tells CBS Austin’s Melanie Barden that people living nearby were evacuated and had to wait on a bus.
This is the second deadly package explosion in Austin this month.
On March 2, a man was killed when a package exploded at his home in northeast Austin.
That incident, which killed 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House, is still under investigation.
