FDX FedEx Corp

By WSJ Staff 

Police are investigating a string of bombings across Austin since early March that have left two people dead and several others injured.

Initially, the locations of the blasts and the race of the victims led officials to speculate that the crimes were targeting a specific area or could be racially motivated, but the more recent attacks dispel those theories. The March 18 explosion injured two white men in an upper middle-class area, and the most recent was at a FedEx facility Tuesday.

March 2

1112 Haverford Dr.

The first bomb went off in northeast Austin, on a suburban street nestled behind several, large corporate office campuses, where Dell Technologies, General Motors and Home Depot have hundreds of technology workers. It killed Anthony S. House, 39 years old, after he handled a box left on his front porch.

March 12

4806 Oldfort Hill Rd.

The second bomb went off before dawn 10 days later in a gentrifying, lower-income neighborhood in East Austin, where newcomers who commute to downtown jobs on mopeds live next to longtime denizens. The package explosion killed Draylen Mason, a 17-year-old high school senior who had been accepted to the music school at the University of Texas.

6706 Galindo St.

Later the same day, another bomb detonated, in a lower-income, largely Hispanic enclave of southeast Austin, sending an elderly woman to the hospital after she handled a package left near her home. That attack spurred conjecture the bomber was targeting minority communities on the east side of Interstate 35.

March 18

Dawn Song Drive, between Republic of Texas Boulevard and Eagle Feather Drive

The pattern changed when a bomb was triggered by two white men, both in their early 20s, who were walking through a neighborhood in southwest Austin. The upper middle-class area, known as Travis Country, abuts a large wooded area of creeks and biking trails called the Barton Creek Greenbelt, and is in a predominantly white part of the city. It is on the west side of I-35. The two men were taken to the hospital with significant injuries. Both were listed in stable condition by Monday afternoon.

March 20

A bomb went off at about 12:25 a.m. local time at a FedEx facility in Schertz, Texas, about an hour south of Austin. The explosion may be linked to the recent spate of bombings in Austin, a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman said. An employee was treated for minor injuries.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 20, 2018 15:03 ET (19:03 GMT)

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