AUSTIN, Texas — A package that exploded at a FedEx distribution center near San Antonio early Tuesday may be linked to four blasts in Austin this month, a source briefed on the investigation told NBC News.
Tuesday’s explosion occurred around 12:25 a.m. local time (1:25 a.m. ET) in the sorting area of a facility in Schertz, Texas, officials said.
At a news conference Tuesday morning, authorities were hesitant to make a connection between the FedEx explosion and the Austin incidents, noting that it was early in the probe.
A source briefed on the investigation earlier Tuesday told NBC News that the blasts are linked, but the source later cautioned that it’s a very fluid situation and it’s unclear whether the latest explosion in Schertz, Texas, is the work of the same bomber who was responsible for four previous blasts that killed two people and wounded four.
Still, hundreds of federal agents are looking through new surveillance video from a FedEx facility in Sunset Valley, an Austin suburb, where someone dropped off two packages, a source brief on the investigation told NBC News. One of those packages ended up in the Schertz FedEx facility. The other ended up a FedEx facility near Austin’s airport, the source said.
One of the packages made it to Schertz where it exploded before it was to be sorted and returned to Austin, while the other arrived at a FedEx facility near the Austin airport, according to the source.
The source said the FBI was referring to the package at the facility near the airport only as “suspicious” — and that’s not clear if there were explosives in it. Authorities have brought in a bomb squad to check, the office of U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett tells NBC News.
FedEx confirmed in a statement Tuesday afternoon that “the individual responsible also shipped a second package,” but did not provide additional details. It added that the second package had been “secured and turned over to law enforcement.”
Schertz is 50 miles from Austin, where the most recent blast injured two men on Sunday night.
No one was hurt at the Schertz FedEx facility, although one employee standing near the explosion was treated and released after complaining of ringing in her ears, Schertz Police Chief Michael Hansen said.
The package “had been traveling along the automated conveyer when it had exploded,” Hansen said during a news conference. “We were very fortunate that there were no injuries.”
Authorities are using a “working theory” that the package that exploded in the Schertz FedEx distribution facility was bound for Austin, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told members of the Austin City Council during a work session Tuesday morning.
“We’ve now seen that evolution to different types of devices and with what just occurred in Schertz, Texas, we’ve now brought in the new element that that device was actually going through one of the carrier services instead of being hand delivered as was the case in the first three, as we believe that to be,” Manley said.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting with the investigation.
Authorities weren’t able to comment on whether there was a return address listed on either package.
Residents in Austin have been on edge after four bombings killed two people and injured four in under three weeks.
The FBI has sent their top cellphone tower experts to Austin in the hopes that they can develop a suspect in the serial bombing spree.
Multiple senior federal law enforcement officials told NBC News that Cellular Analysis Survey Teams, or CAST, are on the ground in Austin hoping to triangulate and pick out patterns as to which cellphones were active in the areas around the bombing sites in Austin.
The CAST unit analyzes which cellphone users were on which segments of a cellphone tower and when. The FBI can then use software to determine if that cellphone was in use at another time on another tower. This type of “pattern solving” technology can help narrow down which possible cellphone users were active around the blast sites at specific times.
Authorities have said a “serial bomber” is at large and warned that the explosive devices appear to be getting more sophisticated.
The latest Austin blast occurred Sunday evening when two men were injured after apparently setting off a tripwire in the southwest of the city; the injuries were not life-threatening.
One victim, Will Grote, had what looked like nails embedded in his legs, his grandfather, Will Grote Sr., told NBC News on Monday.
Since March 2, three other devices have blown up in Austin. Unlike the explosive on Sunday, which had been left next to a fence, the others were placed outside homes.
“With this tripwire, this changes things,” Christopher Combs, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Antonio division, said at a news conference on Monday, referring to the previous day’s explosion. “It’s more sophisticated, it’s not targeted to individuals. … A child could be walking down a sidewalk and hit something.”
The FBI has sent 350 special agents to Austin as well as extra bomb squads.
Manley reminded the community to “pay close attention to any suspicious device, whether it be a package, a bag, a backpack or anything that looks out of place” and to call 911 instead of approaching such items.
Gabe Gutierrez reported from Austin, and Elizabeth Chuck and Tom Winter from New York.