Fourth Bomb Injures Two More in Austin

[Content Note: Terrorism; eliminationist violence.]

A week ago, I wrote about three package bombs had seriously injured two people and killed two more people in Austin, Texas — bombs which were thought to be targeting prominent Black families.

Last night, a fourth bomb went off in Austin, which police believe to be related to the three previous bombings. This explosive was left at the side of a road and may have been triggered by a tripwire. Two cyclists were injured by the blast.

Authorities have seemed at a loss to explain who could be setting off these devices or why, saying only that the bombs were sophisticated and that the attacks could have been motivated by racial bias, although they acknowledged that this is only a theory.

This latest explosion injured two men in their 20s in the southwest area of Austin. Although the previous blasts all involved packages left at homes, this explosive was on the side of the road and possibly triggered by a tripwire, said Brian Manley, the interim Austin police chief.

...The first two bombs killed black people — a 39-year-old construction worker and a 17-year-old high school student — related to prominent members of Austin's African American community who were also close friends. The third bomb seriously injured a 75-year-old Hispanic woman, but it was addressed to a different home and apparently exploded when she was carrying it, said two people familiar with the case.

The first three explosions detonated in the eastern part of Austin, affecting areas where black and Hispanic residents live. Some in the area questioned whether the initial blast would have prompted more urgency had it gone off in a more affluent, predominantly white neighborhood.

This fourth explosion went off in the southwestern part of the city, far from the first three, and police said Monday that the two men injured are white. They were taken to a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, officials said, and hospital officials said they were in good condition.

Police said they are still considering whether some of the bombings were hate crimes.

It's possible that this latest bombing wasn't related; it's also possible that the bomber(s) decided to throw investigators off their trail by undercutting the apparent motive. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, obviously.

Chief among them is why the White House and Justice Department apparently don't give a single shit about an American city being terrorized by a bomber.

I mean, we already know the answer to that question, but, again, it is nonetheless a question that the press needs to be asking them all the same.