The man who killed two people and wounded five others with a series of bomb attacks in the Austin area left an audio recording for police that includes a haunting revelation about himself.
"I wish I were sorry but I am not," Mark Conditt said in the cell phone recording, according to sources familiar with his statements. He described himself as a "psychopath" and said he feels as though he has been disturbed since childhood.
Conditt also promised that he would go inside a crowded McDonald's to blow himself up if he thought authorities were closing in on him, according to law enforcement sources briefed on the contents of the audio. The sources declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak about the recording, which police are using as evidence in the case.
Interim Police Chief Brian Manley confirmed the existence of the audio in a news conference Wednesday, but provided limited details about its specifics. He called it a "confession."
Police said Conditt, 23, detonated a bomb inside his car as officers closed in on him along Interstate 35 early Wednesday. He had a laptop computer with him that was destroyed in the blast, but officials said they think it may have contained other recordings.
According to the sources, he began his 28-minute statement, which was recorded after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, saying "it's me again" and blamed himself for helping investigators find him by going into a FedEx store on Brodie Lane in Sunset Valley to mail two explosive devices, one of which blew up at a transfer facility in Schertz.
That decision, Conditt realized, allowed him to be captured on video cameras inside the store and for outside cameras to snap photographs of his license plate, which authorities used to learn his identity.
Conditt also acknowledged that he recognized his actions left family members without loved ones, and caused permanent injuries to other victims, including an elderly woman, but said little else about them.
The sources also repeated what Manley said at the news conference: That Conditt gave no hint about how or why he chose the targets of the bomb attacks.
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