Suspect in south Austin explosives incident was on parole for related charges: APD
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A Tuesday night 911 call from a concerned citizen reported possible explosives in a south Austin home, triggering a multi-agency investigation involving local and federal agencies.
At a Thursday press conference, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said that APD's bomb squad was on the scene within a few hours. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) arrived close behind.
Davis said the first officers to arrive at the Vintage Stave Road home on Tuesday discovered possible homemade bombs and bomb-making materials. Bomb squad officers quickly realized that the amount of explosive material posed a threat to neighbors and began temporarily evacuating the surrounding area.
APD officers took a resident, 66-year-old Steven Aldrich, into custody.
Officers stayed in the area overnight while law enforcement officials worked to secure search warrants.
By Wednesday morning, the APD Bomb Squad, FBI and ATF determined that the explosives could not be safely removed. They would have to be detonated on-site.
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, a controlled blast triggered by law enforcement completely destroyed the house. A neighboring home took minor damage to its siding from the blast, APD said.
Otherwise, authorities declared the scene safe and allowed neighbors to return to their homes Wednesday evening.
APD alleged that Aldrich has a history with explosives. A Williamson County jury previously convicted him on a felony charge of possessing a prohibited weapon, and sentenced him to six years prison. Davis said Aldrich was still on parole related to that conviction, with only for two more weeks left.
When asked, Davis said Aldrich was assigned to a parole officer, but was not under additional monitoring related to explosives.
"I'm sure he checks in," Davis said. "We are notified that people are on parole, but it's not something that we are going and consistently checking up on people. He has a parole officer that would check on him and that's where that would end."
Officials didn't say exactly how much or what kind of materials were found, but Davis pointed out that it was enough to destroy the suspect's home. She added that she did not know if the suspect had any plans for the materials.
She thanked the involved officers and agencies, and noted that responders didn't receive any reports of injuries related to the explosion. The city emphasized that the incident was not related to the northwest Austin explosion on Sunday.