AUSTIN -- Officers from the local, state and federal level make up the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force. They specialize in taking down the most violent criminals. They activated recently to catch the Austin bombing suspect.
“We were called a couple of days ago. They started getting a little closer to the suspect,” said Darren Sartin, U.S. Marshals Service.
After 9 p.m. Tuesday, the task force received pictures and information about the suspect being in Round Rock.
“We were canvassing the hotels and neighborhoods. We found a vehicle that he was supposed to be in,” said Sartin.
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The suspect was spotted by 2 a.m. in a hotel parking lot off Interstate Highway 35. Officers watched and waited.
“When we got on to him, he sat there approximately 30 to 45 minutes until he left the parking lot,” said Sartin.
Then, the suspect drove off. Nearby officers engaged, hitting the car and stopping the driver on the frontage road.
“A lot of adrenaline, a lot of hoping to get this guy safe and take him into custody so no more bombs would go off and no one else would get hurt,” said Sartin.
The suspect had one more explosive. One police say he used on himself.
“When we were game-planning this whole thing, we knew that there may be times that he may have another bomb on him," said Sartin. "He may try to detonate it prior to lawn enforcement trying to take him into custody. We had talked about it. We expected it because of the nature of what he has been doing in the past. The number of devices he had already sent off, we had planned for it but it was obviously a big surprise when it went off.”
The arrest can't be made, but the threat is over.
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