Wednesday Morning Scoop: Austin Bombing Suspect Dead

Austin Bombing Suspect Dead After Blowing Himself Up in Car

Austin police announce the death of the bombing suspect early this morning. (Image: CNN Video)

A 24-year-old white male who police had identified as the main suspect in a series of bombings that terrified Austin, Texas, died early this morning after detonating a bomb in a car as a SWAT team approached.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley announced that, based on information gathered from two packages that had been taken to a Fed Ex facility — one that exploded and one that didn’t —investigators went to a hotel in Round Rock, a city near Austin. They found the suspect in a car and were waiting for backup when he began to drive away.

He stopped on the side of a road, as SWAT team members approached, and around 2am local time, detonated a device. SWAT members fired into the car and it remains unclear if the suspect died from the explosion or gunfire.

UT Austin student Dani Matias recaps the saga for CMN.

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Days Before March For Our Lives, A School Shooting in Maryland

Just four days before hundreds of thousands of students are expected to gather for the March for Our Lives gun control rally in Washington, D.C., a student at a high school 70 miles south of the nation’s capital opened fire in a hallway before being engaged by a school safety officer.

17-year-old Austin Rollins confronted 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey — one of nine siblings who was a member of the Great Mills High School swim team — in a hallway and then shot her with a Glock 9-millimeter handgun. School safety officer Blaine Gaskill arrived on the scene seconds later and fired at Rollins. A third person, a 14-year-old male student, was injured in the exchange of gunfire and remains in stable condition.

Rollins was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital a few hours later. It’s not clear if he died from Gaskill’s gun or shot himself. The community held a vigil for the victims last night.

More details are available in CMN’s report. 

Today in a Tweet 

An early spring storm is expected to impact about 70 million people today. So yeah, snow day, Soph. 

Mystery Surrounds Death of Pennsylvania Student in Bermuda

St. Joesph’s University (SJU) student and rugby team member Mark Dombroski was found dead in Bermuda earlier this week after competing in a tournament. 19-year-old Dombroski was last seen early Sunday morning after leaving a bar where he was with teammates.

Investigators are still trying to detemine what happened to Dombroski between 1 a.m. Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday, when his body was found. Surveillance cameras captured him talking on a cellphone and walking by himself.

An autopsy is scheduled for today and police do not believe at this time that alcohol was a factor in the death. Read more in CMN’s report. 

Cynthia Nixon Announces Entry Into Race for New York Governor

Actress Cynthia Nixon announced on March 19 that she will be running in the 2018 election for New York governor.

The New York native, best known for her role as Miranda Hobbes in the hit series “Sex and the City,” initially unveiled her candidacy on her Twitter account. The tweet included a two-minute video followed by a link to her campaign website.

Caitlyn Morral has more in her report for CMN. 

Last But Not Least: America’s Best Selling Bunny Teaches A Lesson in Love

John Oliver is well known for his series Last Week Tonight where he delivers news in a humorous but honest manner. Oliver covers world news like Brexit and the French election as well as United States news like the Trump Presidency and vaccines. His most recent episode focused on Mike Pence.

While a majority of the clip focuses on Pence’s LGBT discrimination laws, Oliver brings humor to the episode when he talks about Pence’s pet rabbit: Marlon Bundo. Pence had a children’s book published “Marlon Bundo’s A Day In the Life of the Vice President” and because of Pence’s strong homophobic views, Oliver created his own parody of the book with a major twist. In Oliver’s version “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo,” Marlon Bundo is gay and falls in love with another boy rabbit.

Get the full story in Nicole Masaki’s report for CMN. 

This mid-week Morning Scoop was compiled by Natalia Kolenko, Dani Matias, Caitlyn Morral, Nicole Masaki  and the CMN Staff. Snow day? Snow day? Snow day!!