Sunday, March 25, 2018
Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas
The suspected Austin bomber called himself a “psychopath” in a recorded confession and said he felt no remorse for deadly explosions that killed two people and terrorized the city, a U.S. congressman said Saturday.
Investigators are still looking into what motivated 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt, but the recording he left on his cellphone shows that he was a “sick individual,” U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul said.
“He did refer to himself as a psychopath. He did not show any remorse – in fact, questioning himself for why he didn’t feel any remorse for what he did,” McCaul said.
Conditt makes no mention of a racial motivation on the recording, but investigators are still looking into that as a possibility, he said. The first three victims were minorities.
McCaul, a former federal prosecutor who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, spoke at a news conference where he thanked law-enforcement officials for bringing the three-week spree to an end. He called the investigation, which included more than 800 officers, a textbook example of how local, state and federal agencies should work together.
Beginning March 2, police say Conditt planted bombs in various parts of Austin, killing two people and severely wounding four others. He began by placing explosives in packages left overnight on doorsteps, killing 39-year-old father Anthony Stephan House and 17-year-old musician Draylen Mason and critically injuring 75-year-old Esperanza Herrera. He then rigged an explosive to a tripwire along a public trail, injuring two young men who crossed it. Finally, he sent two parcels with bombs via FedEx, one of which exploded and injured a worker at a distribution center near San Antonio.