Small world - turns out my uncle knows the kid. Uncle and his wife raised their granddaughter, who they homeschooled. The bomber and the granddaughter were in the same carpool, so Uncle drove them around to homeschooling events. Uncle’s church (which is where my parents go) arranged for a young man to live with the bomber!! The roommate said the bomber was a loner and stayed in his room. Uncle said the bomber seemed like a “very nice young man.”
Wow. Just glad it is over.
I hope he left some kind of trail or indication as to why he was doing this. Apparently homeschooled, so we may not see the testimonials as to attitudes and behaviors that we often get from teachers, classmates, and other professionals.
From news reports it appears that it is unknown if he was killed by the explosion and that a police officer shot him to remove any doubt. Arguably this was an extrajudicial killing but I don’t expect any pushback.
Oh, you guys, it turns out the roommate (I’ll call him R, but that’s not one of his initials) was one of my son’s very few friends in Austin when S attended UT. We took R with us to my parents’ condo on the coast of Texas one year. R has been through a lot and my uncle said R is like a son to him. Unbelievable. Reports are that R was arrested yesterday, to be questioned about the bomber. 
Well it’s already begun to float that this was part of “antifa” so to set the record straight, he was a right-winger. He was a right wing terrorist. Whether this terrorism is an attempt to make a political statement is unclear, but if we’re immediately going to call brown people terrorists (which we do), let’s call this for what it is. It is terrorism.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2018/03/21/mark-conditt-know-austin-bombing-suspect
Yes, it most certainly appears to be terrorism. However, how exactly can you determine that he was a “right wing terrorist”? If he has not left an explanation of the reasons for these acts and nobody has said that he told them that, how can you definitively say that?
I live about a mile or so from his house. The city hall and other businesses in the downtown area have been evacuated. There are a couple of schools within two miles of there; they are not doing outside recess today. It’s pretty bizarre to see our little town’s name on CNN!
^^^^I’m assuming there is a concern about the possibility that there are other bombs around, either in his home or elsewhere. Seems like an overabundance of caution, but then again, they may know something we don’t.
This is hopefully helpful:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Austin-Bombing-Suspect-s/242877?cid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=3a0a92ed9d8647a09ec2cb74fd241f13&elq=ba4f834b04284807bda09687658cf1ec&elqaid=18268&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=8169
@cgpm59, you must live near my uncle and aunt!
R, the roommate, is black. It will be interesting to see what his observations of the bomber are.
My uncle picked up R at the house every Sunday to take him to church.
This kid has been described as very bright. No known motive as of yet. I can’t help but wonder if this is a Leopold & Loeb situation; in that he simply wanted to know what it felt like to maim or kill and thought he was too smart to be caught.
@Nrdsb4 that was my assumption as well – that once they entered the house, or maybe got info from the roommates, they decided to evacuate a larger area.
I’m kind of surprised that one on the roommates didn’t turn him in for the reward money.
Are you saying the roommates knew?
Didn’t they arrest at least one of the roommates?
My mistake they were just ‘detained’ not arrested
[qoute]
Authorities have detained two people who lived with bombing suspect Mark Conditt.
Austin police said Wednesday that one roommate was questioned and later released, while the second was still being held for questioning.
Authorities did not release the names of the roommates, explaining that they have not been placed under arrest.
[/quote]
Evangelical Christian homeschooling and antifa do not go together! It will be interesting to hear from the roommates. A neighbor gave the police a sketch of the inside of the house because he had helped them work on it. He didn’t really know the kid but described the Dad as “doting and friendly”. How awful for all of them. How does someone turn this bad?
CNN is reporting that the bomber used the name “Kelly Killmore” to mail the bombs at FedEx.
“Nice kid”-I think not.
Austin police press conference is stating that Conditt left a 25 minute recorded confession. Allegedly there was no mention of hate or terrorist motivations, simply “an outcry of a challenged young man” talking about challenges in his personal life which “led him to this point.”
Allegedly the killer described in detail 7 devices, which have all been accounted for.
I heard something reported that he had written about young people with unjustified sex offender charges that followed them around their entire life, making it hard to get a job. Anyone else hear that?