2 explosions kill teen, injure women in Austin

Police are responding to another explosion in Austin that badly injured a woman, hours after a package bomb killed a teenager and wounded a woman in a different part of the city. Austin-Travis County EMS tweeted that an explosion Monday in southeast Austin injured a woman in her 70s, who has been hospitalized. A second woman from that address has been hospitalized with an unrelated medical issue. Authorities have not said whether the most recent explosion was caused by a package bomb like the one that exploded earlier Monday. Police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference Monday that investigators believe the deadly blast Monday is linked to a March 2 package bomb that killed a 39-year-old man in another part of the city. ___ 11:35 a.m. Police say their investigation of deadly package bombings at two Austin homes will try to determine if a hate crime was involved because the victims in both cases were black. Police Chief Brian Manley said Monday that investigators hope to collect surveillance video from nearby homes to identify a suspect. He says there’s currently no other evidence indicating a hate crime beyond the victims’ race. He says the package that exploded Monday and the one that detonated on March 2 had been left on the front doorsteps and were not delivered by a mail service. A 17-year-old boy was killed in Monday’s explosion and a woman injured. Authorities said earlier that the woman’s injuries were life-threatening, but Manley says she’ll survive. A 39-year-old man was killed in the March 2 attack. ___ 11 a.m. Authorities say a package that exploded inside of an Austin home, killing a teenager and wounding a woman, is linked to a deadly package sent to another home in Texas’ capital city earlier this month because they were both left on the front doorstep and not delivered by a mail service. Austin police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference Monday that the U.S. Postal Service does not have a record of delivering a package to the Austin home where the explosion occurred Monday. He says that package was brought into the kitchen where it detonated, killing a 17-year-old boy and injuring the woman. The FBI is helping Austin police in the investigation. ___ 9:30 a.m. A teenager has died and a woman is seriously injured after a package exploded at a home in Austin, marking the second such explosion this month at a home in Texas’ capital city. The package detonated early Monday. Police say the teen died at the scene, while the woman was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police say the woman is in her 40s, but they haven’t released any other information. Authorities are investigating whether the explosion is linked to a similar blast on March 2 that killed a 39-year-old man. Both explosions occurred in the early-morning hours. Police are investigating that incident as a suspicious death. Investigators haven’t released information about the device or possible suspects. The FBI is helping Austin police in the investigation.