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Arrest Made In SXSW Roots Bomb Threat, Another Explosion Rocks City
SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images – Austin Bombing
The scene near Galindo Street in Austin, Texas on March 12, 2018 where a woman in her 70s was injured in an explosion.
Austin police arrested a man on charges of making a bomb threat that led to the cancellation of the “Bud Light x The Roots Jam” at South by Southwest March 17, and an explosion rocked a neighborhood and injured two more people as the music conference came to a close Sunday night.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>The Bud Light x The Roots SXSW Jam at Fair Market has been canceled. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/SXSW?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#SXSW</a> <a href=”https://t.co/iLkmAcroAh”>https://t.co/iLkmAcroAh</a></p>— SXSW (@sxsw) <a href=”https://twitter.com/sxsw/status/975203582935994368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>March 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
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“The Austin Police Department was contacted by a Live Nation Music representative to report a bomb threat received by email at 1100 E. 5th St., the Fair Market event venue,” an Austin Police statement read. “In the interest of SXSW attendees’ safety, Bud Light made the decision to cancel the event.” The Roots were to be joined at the Fair Market by artists including Ludacris, Jessie Reyez, Tank and the Bangas and the show was to be opened by Moon Taxi.
That night, Austin Police arrested a 26-year-old man on charges of terroristic threat, a third degree felony.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Booking photo of Trevor Ingram. <a href=”https://t.co/pEpE3lifVn”>pic.twitter.com/pEpE3lifVn</a></p>— Austin Police Dept (@Austin_Police) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Austin_Police/status/975265864235802624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>March 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The bomb threat comes after the city was already on high alert as packages were detonating at Austin residences, leading to one death March 2, then separate blasts killed one person and critically injured another March 12 as the the music conference was just getting started, and two more were injured March 18 in an explosion in the Texas capital city’s southwestern region.
Two men in their 20s were hospitalized with injuries that were not life threatening, according to Austin-Travis County Emergency services.
The latest explosion appears different from the previous ones, and CNN and other media outlets have reported police saying it may have been triggered by a tripwire.
Sunday’s explosion occurred far from the first three blasts, which happened in separate, suburban neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city.
The latest explosion came hours after authorities raised the reward by $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of whoever is responsible for the first three explosions. It now totals $115,000.
Austin police Chief Brian Manley has said the earlier three bombings are related and could be crimes of hatred, but that investigators have not ruled out any possible motive or any clear idea “what the ideology is behind this.” The victims have so far been black or hispanic.