DAVID GREENE, HOST:
We're following breaking news in Austin, Texas, this morning. There are multiple reports suggesting that a suspect in a series of bombings that shook that city is dead. Police are expected to speak momentarily with the press. Now, let's remember since the beginning of the month, these blasts in Austin have killed two people and injured several others. Two more package bombs were discovered early Tuesday morning. There was also another explosion that hurt someone in Austin late yesterday at a Goodwill store, but investigators say that was not linked to the other incidents. This is Austin's assistant police Chief Ely Reyes.
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ELY REYES: We did determine that this was not an explosive device. This incident is not related to any of the other incidents that we've had here in Austin.
GREENE: OK. So much to talk about here. Let's turn to Mose Buchele of member station KUT in Austin. Hi, Mose.
MOSE BUCHELE, BYLINE: Hi, there.
GREENE: So what is the latest here? I mean, this potentially could be a huge sigh of relief for people in the city - that this all might be over. But what do we know at this moment?
BUCHELE: So far, what we know is that there was some type of police standoff in a community north of Austin in Round Rock - kind of a suburban city. And this is where it starts getting sketchy. We have confirmation that there was a standoff with a suspect in the bombing. What we're seeing now in news media reports - that we have not independently confirmed - is that the suspect had a standoff with police, detonated an explosive device and is dead. And that is being reported by several sources, especially the - we have detail from the Austin American-Statesman on that. But again, we're waiting on official confirmation from Austin police on those details.
GREENE: OK, and what is the Austin American-Statesman reporting about what may have happened? That's the major newspaper in Austin, we should say.
BUCHELE: Yeah, that's the main daily here. And essentially what they're saying is that police had been able to track this suspect looking at sales receipts, video surveillance and track him down to a hotel, again, in Round Rock where they had a standoff and where there was an explosion eventually. There are also reports that there was gunfire as well. Although, again, this is just breaking, and so it is kind of sketchy at the moment.
GREENE: And we're going to hear from police soon it sounds like. What about these other bombs discovered Tuesday? It sounds like at least one may not have been related to all this.
BUCHELE: Yeah, and this is just kind of - it is a great example of how nervous people have become and how little we sometimes seem to know about this. Late yesterday, there was what initially was reported to be an explosion at a Goodwill in the south part of the city. Everyone rushed out there. There was a huge law enforcement and media presence. And later, it was said that perhaps this was - they called it a simulated artillery device, essentially kind of a big firecracker that had been put in a Goodwill donation box that blew up. But it had nothing to do with the bombing itself.
GREENE: Kind of thing that may have not drawn that much attention were it not in this climate right now.
BUCHELE: Exactly. Yes.
GREENE: Tell me about this climate. I mean, you've been talking to people in Austin about how they're feeling right now.
BUCHELE: Yeah, I was walking around a lot of yesterday just interviewing people I ran into. And I have to say, everyone I spoke with said that they were nervous. I was kind of surprised. I expected a few people to shrug it off, but no one I talked to did. It seems like tension has been ratcheting up day after day as these bombs kept going off. And I talked to a few people that had interesting stories about how they were coping. Do you know those white boards that people keep on their refrigerators to kind of plan out their week and dinner...
GREENE: Of course. Plan out their week. Plan when you're...
BUCHELE: Right.
GREENE: ...Going to take a vacation and what you have to buy at the grocery store. Yeah, of course.
BUCHELE: Exactly. Yeah, I talked to a guy named Kyle Olson (ph), who lives on the east side of town, who said that at the beginning of this week, he and his wife had actually started using that for a different purpose. Here's what he had to say.
KYLE OLSON: What we've done now is we start to write down what day packages are supposed to arrive and when, even possibly, like, the size - noting the size of the package as well.
GREENE: Oh, wow.
BUCHELE: And - (laughter) yeah. The reason for that is that they want to make sure that any package left in their yard was indeed intended for them - something they had ordered and not an explosive device because that's how some of these bombs were delivered to people.
GREENE: That just gives you a sense of how people are on edge in that city.
BUCHELE: Yeah.
GREENE: OK. Just restating the news that there are reports that the suspect in these bombings is dead, but we are waiting for more from police momentarily. Mose Buchele of member station KUT in Austin has been covering this story. Mose, thanks.
BUCHELE: Thank you, David. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
