Texas Lt. Gov. on Austin Bomber: ‘I’m Glad He’s Dead’

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is not shedding any tears for a man suspected of killing two people and injuring scores of others. The man died in the wee hours Wednesday after a dramatic showdown with law enforcement officers.

“I’m glad he’s dead,” Patrick said on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

According to police, the man blew himself up on the side of a highway north of Austin as police closed in on him.

“It is a great day for Texas,” said Patrick, who added that he got a call from law enforcement shortly before 3 a.m. local time. “We still have to be vigilant.”

Authorities believe the man is responsible for six bombings around Austin and San Antonio since March 2.

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“We don’t know the motive yet, obviously … We do not have any sense that there was anything on his social media accounts that would have indicated that he might be a bomber,” Patrick said. “Law enforcement will crack that egg eventually.”

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters that investigators tracked the suspect to a motel in Round Rock, north of Austin. Officers pulled the vehicle over, and the driver detonated a bomb.

“They felt they had their person,” Patrick told Ingraham. “He had been a person of interest.”

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Patrick praised the army of law enforcement officers who spent weeks tracking the bomber. That effort included some 500 federal, state and local officers plus bomb experts.

“I cannot say enough about the law enforcement on this case … They had hundreds of leads, hundreds of phone calls coming in,” he said. “They had to track it all down.”

The officers who approached the bomber’s vehicle took enormous risk, Patrick said.

“Any time you approach any crime scene if you’re in law enforcement, it’s dangerous. But when you’re approaching someone who’s a bomber, it’s the most dangerous situation, because they could throw a pipe bomb at you,” he said. “There could be a booby trap. And these officers approached that car to take him down. They put their lives in danger. And fortunately, none were hurt and none were killed.”

PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.