Experts say one thing is for certain about the person who is leaving package bombs on the front steps of homes in Austin--this is no petty criminal or gang member, this is a dangerous person who knows what he or she is doing, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
This is not someone who read on line or went to YouTube last night," Alex DelCarmen, a professor of law enforcement and strategic studies at Tarleton State University in Ft. Worth tells News Radio 1200 WOAI. "This is likely someone who has been trained formally, either former military, or someone who has received paramilitary training overseas perhaps."
Experts are comparing the attacks in Austin to the Unabomber, who mailed explosive packages across the country in the 1990s. They say it takes a specific ability to be able to construct a package bomb that will detonate when the package is opened. You have to be able to pick the right chemicals, know how to pack them so you don't get blown up on the way to deliver the packages, and the person also has to have an intricate understanding of timers and detonators.
"This person is incredibly disciplined, very very smart, and somebody who is certainly not going to go to social media and take credit and make it easier for police to apprehend."
What about the possibility of Middle East inspired terrorism? DelCarmen says he won't rule it out.
"I wouldn't put it past ISIS," he said. "The whole objective is to individualize and personalize that criminal element."
He says whether it is plotted by a next door neighbor or by somebody inspired by ISIS in the Middle East, DelCarmen says the goal is the same...to terrorize, and that's what's happening.
A package that was left on an Austin bus overnight prompted a major scare, and turned out to be harmless.
DelCarmen predicts the person will be apprehended, because explosives leave a 'DNA trail,' which is how the Unabomber was convicted.
PHOTO; SPECTRUM NEWS