Reddit suspended an account yesterday that claimed to be the person responsible for a series of bombing attacks near Austin, Texas over the last three weeks.
Hours later, police in Austin said a man suspected of the bombings blew himself up.
The Reddit user u/AustinBomber, posted in a popular “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) subreddit, where they said they wanted “watch the world burn.”
The user claimed to be a male “in his mid thirties or forties.”
Early Wednesday morning, a male suspect linked to the bombing attacks killed himself inside a car with an explosive device before law enforcement could catch him, according to CNN. The suspect was a 24-year-old.
The u/AustinBomber account was suspended by Reddit and the posts by him were deleted. However, the AMA thread is still available to see.
The original post read:
“My short bio: I am a man in his mid thirties or forties. All of you should have heard by now what I have been doing around the Austin area. (And now over at FedEx c:). Ask me anything you like – the only questions I will not answer or may partially answer are PII (personally identifiable information) questions. My Proof: I think the proof will be in the pudding with my answers. I’d post some pictures but I think that would violate the “content policy” as hateful or material inciting violence, and I really wouldn’t wanna do that. Anyways, open the flood gates and AMA. I’ll be around here for the next two days only.”
In a statement to the Daily Dot, Reddit said that, “Based on user reports, moderator action and our Trust and Safety team, we were able to act swiftly to remove the AMA in question. The user and the content were banned per our site wide policies within an hour of posting.”
A spokesperson for the Austin Police Department told the New York Daily News that they were “investigating” the posts made on Reddit.
There are clear contradictions in the original u/AustinBomber post in the AMA thread and the suspect who killed themselves early Wednesday.
In fact, many people responding to the original post on Reddit were leery that it was actually the person responsible for the bombings—which began earlier this month and killed two people.
“I don’t believe you. Sorry. Have any proof? Didn’t think so. Stop pretending to be the bomber. Its not only weird, its pathetic,” one user wrote.
“Yeah, I was hoping to get him to give us something to report to the police if he was the real deal. Doesn’t look like thats the case though,” another one wrote.
Several other users claimed to have contacted authorities regarding the post.
This article has been updated.
