'Explosive material' in South Austin: New details about suspect, investigation revealed

AUSTIN, Texas - City of Austin officials held a news conference on the "explosive materials" that were detonated in a South Austin home on Wednesday evening.

Mayor Kirk Watson and Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis spoke from City Hall about the South Austin incident, as well as Sunday's house explosion in Northwest Austin.

New details revealed about suspect

What we know:

Austin police chief Lisa Davis revealed more details about the investigation and shared the name of the suspect.

The suspect has been identified as 66-year-old Steven Blake Aldrich. 

He is currently in the Travis County Jail on a third-degree felony charge for possession of components of explosives. Bond has been set at $100,000.

Court records show this isn’t the first time Steven Aldrich has been arrested for having volatile substances. 

In 2015, Aldrich was arrested after officers said they found a short-barreled rifle, which was a prohibited weapon, components of explosives, and small explosive devices. Leander Police told FOX 7 Aldrich said he was making homemade fireworks.

In 2018, an explosion brought police back to his home in Leander. Apparently, Aldrich lost his hand when volatile substances he was mixing ignited.

Aldrich was sentenced to six years in prison. He had about two weeks left of probation when he was arrested this time.

New details on the investigation

Timeline:

Chief Davis also spoke more about the investigation that led up to the detonation.

She says that a concerned citizen called and reported potential bomb-making materials inside a home and when patrol officers responded, they called the bomb squad.

Davis says at that point, they filed for a search warrant and immediately placed Aldrich into custody. They also vacated the home and surrounding homes.

She specifically acknowledged a lieutenant that remained on scene overnight waiting for the search warrants, saying "we [Austin police] did not ever leave that scene from the minute it came out."

A search warrant uncovered a "large quantity of homemade explosives and explosive precursors", says Davis, and a plan was formed to render the scene safe, which included detonating some of the explosive material inside the home.

"This was such a quantity and the volatility, the chemical consideration, that we decided that the safest thing would be to do a controlled detonation inside the house so that we weren't moving this across the city of Austin, endangering anyone in a vehicle, pedestrians or additional homes," said Austin Police Special Operations Det. Elijah Myrick.

"So again, it is enough that we were able to, when we detonated, it destroyed this house. And so when you think about containing it to that and what the potential is, these were homemade chemicals that he was making and manufacturing. So what his plan was, I cannot say, but it was absolutely enough to destroy a home," Davis said.

Neighbors, residents react

What they're saying:

"It obviously was a boom and as you see from the debris pile, items were blown out, windows, the door, siding and things including the roof from this area," Laura Stephenson of the Gabardine Homeowner’s Association said about the explosion.

Aldrich’s neighbors said they didn’t expect this.

"No one in the neighborhood had any idea. They were very quiet, older people, so I just don't know, but I'm grateful that it was found out and that law enforcement, fire, EMS was able to come in and take care of the hazards," Stephenson said.

"He should not have been out. He had been arrested twice before, it's my understanding, and why wasn't he surveilled appropriately as a bomb maker? They knew what his M.O. was," says neighbor Bob Karstens.

Bob Karstens lives four houses down from where Austin police blew up the home.

The explosion caused major damage to the home and minor damage to the home next door.

"They said, stay in your house, we're going to explode something, and stay in your house until 5:30 p.m., which we did, but about 5:15 p.m., I was watching TV and I heard this boom, and it was loud. You don't anticipate that something like this could be happening right close to you because it could have exploded and hurt anybody next door and the houses are only 10 feet apart, you know, and we don't really know our neighbors. We think we know our neighbors, but we don't really know," says Karstens.

He says this week has been a nightmare, and it has turned into an eyesore for the community.

"We've been here for three years. It's a very peaceful place, it's a gated community. We retired here, and it was such a surprise to see this show of force. I'm happiest that in this whole event, nobody was injured or hurt, including the perpetrator, his poor mother, who I think is in a wheelchair, and has a lot of sympathy, because I’m sure she didn't know what was going on," says Karstens.

"Explosive materials" detonated in South Austin home

The backstory:

Austin police say that on April 15 at around 3:13 p.m., officers responded to a call reporting a possible explosive device in the 2400 block of Vintage Stave Road. This is off Frate Barker Road between Brodie Lane and Menchaca Road in South Austin.

APD's Bomb Squad and ATF responded and processed the scene, and further investigation determined the "only way" to safely detonate some of the material inside a residence is to detonate it onsite.

APD says residents in the area were evacuated and that all necessary precautions were taken.

APD later said that there was "major damage" to the home that contained the explosive materials and "minor damage" to the siding of the house next door. 

Residents were allowed back into their homes by the end of the night, says Davis.

Hear the blast

The detonation happened around 5:10 p.m. April 16.

Photos from the scene

A resident provided these photos to FOX 7 Austin of the scene before the detonation.

What we don't know:

It is still unknown what exactly the "explosive material" was or why exactly it could not be removed from the site before detonation, as officials declined to release that information at the press conference.

Davis says that the investigation is ongoing and no further specific details of the case will be released at this time to protect the integrity of the investigation.

South AustinCrime and Public Safety