AUSTIN, Texas — Austin police have ruled out a man charged with making an SXSW bomb threat as a suspect in a string of recent deadly bombings in East Austin that began March 2.
“We do not believe he is involved in the string of package bombs,” Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said Sunday. “We looked into him and we are not thinking he is involved in this.”
Police on Saturday night arrested Trevor Weldon Ingram, 26, and charged him with making a terroristic threat, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Manley said investigators have looked into Ingram’s threat and his background, but he declined to say other steps they have taken to rule him out.
“We have run him through the investigative process,” Manley said.
Police say the Fair Market in East Austin received a bomb threat at 4:23 p.m. Saturday, forcing the cancellation of an SXSW show by the Roots. Officers then checked the area but found nothing suspicious, officials said.
“In the interest of safety, (promoter) Bud Light made the decision to cancel the event,” according to a news release from the city of Austin early Sunday morning.
Ingram’s sister, Brittany Ingram, declined to comment Sunday morning on her brother’s arrest, but told the American-Statesman that he is not responsible for three recent bombing attacks in Austin that killed two people and left a third with serious injuries.
The emailed threat comes as authorities investigate three package bombings at homes in the last few weeks.
On March 2, 39-year-old Anthony Stephan House was seriously injured after a package at his home in Northeast Austin detonated. He later died in the hospital. Police at the time said it was an isolated incident and there was no danger to the public.
But that changed on March 12, when police responded to two more package bombings in East Austin. In the first bombing that day, Draylen Mason, 17, was killed, and his mother suffered injuries. A second attack at another home sent a woman in her 70s to the hospital with serious injuries.
Cox Media Group
