Sometime around midnight on March 20, a handful of Austin Police Department SWAT officers climbed into a van and raced north up Interstate 35. They were close to catching the serial bomber who had terrorized the city for 19 days.
In the dimly lit parking lot of a Rudy's barbecue, the team assembled blocks from where the man's red Nissan SUV sat just off the highway.
They had played out different scenarios, including that he could have a booby-trapped car loaded with explosives or a hidden bomb tucked under his seat. They had called for the department's armored vehicles, but by the time the suspect started moving, the vehicles, which can only travel at top speeds of about 50 miles per hour, were still chugging up I-35 from police headquarters downtown.
"They were doing everything they could to get them there," said Lt. Katrina Pruitt, who supervises the team. "He just went mobile too fast."
They were going to be on their own.
As they sealed their plan, the team agreed their foremost goal was to end the attacks by arresting the bomber without putting themselves, the public or the suspect himself in danger.
"We would have liked to contain him and gain control over him to allow him the ability to peacefully surrender," SWAT Team Sgt. Brannon Ellsworth said.
When those plans quickly crumbled, team members say they still knew they had to strike. They say they were left with no option of what to do next.
