podium and of course, fox news will bring that to you live. tomorrow we'll have more on the special election in pennsylvania. for now, i'm dana perino. here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 at the white house. we're waiting for the press secretary to take questions. this after president trump backed off the age to raise the age to buy some guns. tweeting that the idea does not have enough political support. but it's widely supported by the republicans and democrats. it's the nra that does not support it. and more on background checks on teachers. and stormy daniels is offer to return the money back to the president if she is allowed to talk about her encounter with

the now president. some lawmakers in the president's own party planning to take on his import taxes trying to pass a bill to undue his tariffs on steel and aluminum. they have big obstacles ahead. word that the north korean dictator will ask for a peace treaty with washington. will he give up his nukes when he sits down with the president? who is setting off bombs in austin, texas. breaking now, three different packages left in homes and rigged to explode. people have been hurt. others have been killed. now cops have a warning for everyone in the capitol of texas. let's get to it. that breaking news comes to us from the lone star state. first there was one, then a second and now a third package. an explosion. a warning to people in austin,

texas, be careful what you open. the third blast happened in the last couple hours. it came after another bombing earlier today that has reportedly killed a teenager and injured a woman. we have the locations of the three bombings. here they are. police say they're not sure if they're linked but the first two are. investigators say the first package exploded today was the first one that was similar to two weeks ago. those they say have some sort of connection. now the police chief is warning people in austin, if you get something suspicious, a package that doesn't make sense to you, especially if it shows up on your door step, don't touch it. call the cops and dial 9111 immediately. we're expecting an update from police. casey claiborne from fox 7 is live at the scene.

casey, tell us what you know. >> shep, it's definitely a frightening day in austin. we may very well have some sort of a serial bomber on our happened here in austin, texas. i'm at the scene right now of the third mysterious explosion in three weeks, second one today. two people have died from these explosions. a lot of law enforcement here, the atf, fbi, police, you name it are here investigating. a man named anthony house opened a package on his front porch and exploded and killed him. police investigated it. austin police chief says a 17-year-old was killed this morning after a package was left on the front door step. a women he was with was injured. the police says the two incidents are related.

now we're at a reported third explosion has been reported. no word if they're related. the chief also said he could not rule out the first two are hate crimes because the recipients were african american families. the chief stressed, shep, if you see any sort of suspicious package, don't open it. it's not worth it. >> shepard: casey, have the authorities described if they look the same, any characteristics other than if they're on the door step be careful? >> they did said this morning, didn't appear that this were any sort of specific markings, like any sort of company or postal service. the postal service said they did not come from them. so as far as we know, it's just a blank package. we're hearing from some sources

that it's handwritten, the recipient is handwritten. >> shepard: casey claiborne from fox 7 in austin. we're waiting for police there. there's breaking news right now. sarah sanders expected to take the podium at any moment. we'll have that live as it starts. first, one of the questions will be about stormy daniels. the former porn star offering president trump's lawyer a refund. fox news confirms the adult film actress said she's willing to return $130,000 that she received just before the united states presidential election if she's allowed to talk about what she calls her relationship with the president. her lawyer says she also wants to reveal "any texts, photos and videos" related to the president she may have. stormy daniels, her screen name, says she had an affair with president trump about a decade

ago as the president's lawyer paid to keep it quiet. her attorney giving the president's personal lawyer, michael cohen till noon tomorrow to take the deal. the president's personal lawyer have denied there was an affair. trace gallagher live with more. trace, what else do we know about this whole thing? >> shep, the fact of the letter simultaneously sent to the president's personal attorney michael cohen and released to the media is an indication that stormy daniels, whose real name is stephanie clifford are trying to raise the volume on this. even though michael cohen -- >> shepard: sorry for the interruption, trace. let's see if sarah sanders has anything to say about that or anything else of interest. let's listen. >> you don't have to worry whether their child will come home at the end of the day. the president's plan focuses on the following areas. first, hardening our schools.

we will make sure they're safe like our airports and stadiums and government buildings. second, strengthening background checks and prevention. the president is supporting legislation and reforms to strengthen the background check system and law enforcement operations. third, reforming mental health programs. the president is proposing an expansion of mental health programs, including those that help identify and treat individuals that may be a threat to themselves or others. finally, continuing this important conversation in addition to the immediate actions, the president is reviewing additional policy and funding proposals for school violence prevention. these focus areas were identified after numerous meetings students, teachers, lawmakers and local officials and the president will continue to lead the way on keeping our children safe. looking ahead to next week, president trump will welcome crown prince mohammed ben salman

to the white house. the president looks forward to strengthening ties between the united states and saudi arabia. i'd like to announce the president will travel to peru and columbia next month. it will mark his first trip to latin america. he will attend the summit of the americas in lima and will participate in cultural engagements, this travel highlights the president's resolve to deepen our historical ties with our partners in the region and our joint commitment time proved security and prosperity for the people of the americas. the president is looking forward to meeting with partners and allies that share our values and believe that we do that the promise of a safe future rests in strong democrats is, fair and reciprocal trade and secure borders. with that, i'll take your questions. >> the president talked about north korea. he said if the meeting with kim takes place. is there a chance that it won't

take place? >> we fully expect it will. the offer was made and we've accepted. north korea made several promises. we hope they would stick to the promises. if so, the meeting will go on an planned. >> what preparations are being made so far? >> we're continuing to prepare on a number of levels. most of that is enteragency. >> the president said he wanted to raise the age on purchasing assault weapons, he talked about taking guns away from those identified as a threat even without due process. what happened to all of those proposals? >> a look of those things are still outlined in the proposal that -- if you don't have it yet, you should receive it in the next few minutes in your inboxes.

right now the president's primary focus is on pushing through things that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do from a administrative perspective that we can do immediately. we haven't let go some of those other things that we'll continue to review and look at as i mentioned in the opening part of my first comments. >> was there a single thing in this proposal from the president that is not supported by the nra? anything in here that the nra opposes? >> look, the president still has in this plan the age limit increase. that is part of one of the things that will be -- one of those things will be reviewed on what the best part forward is on that front, whether it can be done at a federal level or whether it needs to be done on a state by state basis. the president doesn't have the ability to create federal law. he would need a number of other individuals to come together to help make that happen. so what he is pushing forward are things that can immediately

accomplished either through the administration or that have broad-based bipartisan support in congress. that doesn't mean that he has wiped away the other things that we're still looking at how we can best move forward on. >> why did he name this devos commission less than 24 hours after ridiculing blue ribbon commissioned? he said all they do is talk and talk. but this commission is okay? >> the president just doesn't have one piece of this plan. a number of things that he's pushing forward that are tangible through support of legislation and administrative action like getting rid of the bump stocks that the president has been very vocal about and will continue to push for. >> picking up where john left off regarding the national rifle association. president trump sort of made an example of republican senators that are afraid of crossing the

nra. he said some of you are petrified of the nra. you can't be petrified. based on the plan, seems like president trump was the one petrified of the nra because he backed away from the ideas that he brought into the discussion. i'm asking why he chickened out. why he didn't go forward with what he had proposed earlier. >> look, he hasn't backed away from these things at all. they're still outlined the plan. he can't make them happen with a broad stroke of the pen. you have to have congressional component to do these things. without that support, it's not as possible. however, we are focused on things that we can do immediately. let's not forget that the obama administration had the white house and congress and never did anything. this president is supporting specific pieces of legislation and still laying out other priorities that he would like to see talked about and implemented whether we have to do that -- >> he could have put out a proposal for legislation. he could have advocated for

universal background checks. he could have called for raising the ages -- >> he -- it's actually listed still in his policy proposal that you'll see. >> federal policy? >> it's reviewing the best path forward for have to do that. that door isn't closed on that front. >> and comment on the news out of great britain today. theresa may saying that the british government believes that russia was behind the attempted murder and poisoning of two agents. is that the assessment of the united states government? and does the united states expect to look at it as russia using chemical weapons and will there be any repercussions?

>> look, we've been monitoring the incident closely. take it very seriously. the use of a highly legal nerve agent is and outrage. the attack was reckless and irresponsible. we extend our sympathy to the families and the u.k. government. we stand by our closest ally and the special relationship that we have. >> you're not saying that russia was behind it? >> right now we are standing with our u.k. allies. they're still working through even some of the details of that. we're going to continue to work with the u.k. we certainly stand with them throughout this process. >> given the chemical weapons to a third party, the latter being highly unlikely given the nature of this weapon. >> like i said, we stand with our ally and we certainly fully

support them with our -- and are ready if we can be of assistant. >> what was the president's reaction to betsy devos going on "60 minutes" saying that she admitted she's not intentionally visited underperforming schools and went on another network this morning and said everything is on the table when it came to school safety and guns? clearly everything is not on the table. >> the president laid out what his positions are both on the school safety front and what he thinks the best path forward specific to immediate actions that we can take and also things that need further review on determining the best path forward that can help protect the safety and security of kids across the country. >> did he see the interview? >> i'm not sure. >> congress possibly blocking or

delaying tariff implementation. how concerned is the president for that and a follow up on china. >> our position on this front has not changed. the president has opinion clear for quite some time what his position is and what his authorities is on the statute and we're moving forward. >> if i might, i know the president made a tongue and cheek comment about president chi have the ability to rule for quite some time. is there an administrationive position? is it healthy with the relationships of our country? >> that is something for china to make a determination on, not the united states. >> is it healthy from the administration's perspective in terms of a country being there potentially indefinitely? >> i wouldn't way in on that. the president and president xi have a good relationship. a lot of the willingness to china to step up and participate at a far higher level than they have in the past to put maximum

pressure on north korea has been successful and has been in large part due to that relationship. as the president has also said, he wants to make sure that they don't take advantage of us when it comes to trade and we're going to continue to push best what is best for america. >> and the gun issue. on age restrictions, the president has said he's criticized his predecessor saying they haven't shown leadership. how can you make the political expediency argument for his school safety policy and that he's backing only things he thinks can pass and not -- >> that's not what i said. i said we're specifically driving forward on some of the things that we know can happen and determining the path forward on some of those things that don't have the same broad base of support. you can't decide to have laws

pass and it happen. >> but the leader of the party -- >> which is way he laid those things out. >> if he chose to -- >> which is why he laid that out in the policy that he put forth that he rolled out this morning. >> is commissioner devos going to continue to be the face of the school policy and this commission after last night's interview? >> the president is the lead on school safety. he has been since this process has begun and will continue to lead on it as we go forward. >> two questions. one on guns and the other on the president's trip to california. on guns, the president and the white house met with six students from parkland, florida and said specifically that you would go strong on the age limit. this proposal doesn't have the president stepping forward and demanding action from congress. why is the president backing away from the six students --

>> i guess i don't know how many times i can explain the same thing. the president still supports this. that's why it's in his plan. that's why he's reviewing the best path forward to get it through. at the same time he's making sure that the things that we can do right now we're doing. instead of holding everything back until we can get the other pieces done, we're pushing forward on the things that have support that can be accomplished immediately and working through the process to see what we can get done. it seems smart and bold leadership to help protect kids while not ignoring other policies. >> can you tell us about the president's trip to california, why is he going to see the wall prototypes first and also this is a state that did not vote for the president. is the president going to make an opportunity to reach out to people that didn't vote for him by going to the state? >> i think this is an important

thing the president has talked about. the safety and security of the country and strongly feels that the wall is a big part of that. he's going to look at the prototypes. also, he's going to speak to members of the military. you'll see all five branches of the military represented at the speech he gives. while california may not -- he may not have won that state, there's a lot of support important this president, not just there but across the country and he looks forward to being there and presenting a lot of those specific policies. >> there's a lot of republican lawmakers think that the wall is too expensive and a waste of money. is the president concerned that he's putting undue pressure on republican lawmakers in california? >> no. this president campaigned and this and he talked about it and something that he's not going back away from and continue to push for.

>> since kim jong-un's overture to meet with president trump, the north korean media has not referenced anything. they have not said that north korea would get rid of their nuclear weapons. i heard what you said about how a meeting will still take place. what makes you think based on the fact that kim jong-un has not mentioned this to his own people that anything of substance will come out? >> we know the maximum pressure campaign is working. we know they responded due to that. they have pushed this message through the south koreans to us. we have accepted their invitation on the three promises that they made and we're going to move forward. >> being nuclearized is a point of pride, we're told -- >> i'm sorry. >> being a nuclear country is a point of pride, we're told, for

north koreans. to get rid of their own nuclear weapons would be something that would undercut what that country and what kim jong-un stands for. >> that shows the effectiveness of maximum pressure campaign. that's one of the reasons that we're not letting up on the maximum pressure campaign and we'll continue to push forward on it. john? >> thank you, sarah. two questions. following up on what john asked. we know that kim jong-un has been using a special envoy to seoul to send messages. has he spent -- sent any special messages to the president? >> i'm not going to go ahead of or go beyond the things that we put out publicly. >> the other thing is, regarding the election in pennsylvania, the president's campaign visit not withstanding, he's reported in several sources today who

referred to republican rick saccone as "weak" and said he's run a poor campaign. this seems unusual in light of what he said saturday, in light of mr. saccone's praise of him as a friend. did he say that about mr. saccone? >> i can't weigh-in on that, but i can refer you back to the president's public comments that he made saturday. >> is it the president's intent to pick a winning design for the wall? is that why -- >> he wants to look at the different prototypes. beyond that, i not going to get ahead of hi visit. >> there's a report that the saudi government inflicted abuse on people held captive for the time at the ritz carlton hotel. is this something that the white house intends to bring up with the crown prince? >> we'll have a read-out of that meeting. >> i have two questions.

first, on the president during his campaign, he said nobody knows the system better than me and that's why i can fix it. certain things he supports does not have support in congress. that he's only going to push forward on the things that -- >> that's not what i said but -- you guys continue to misunderstand and represent the comments that i'm making. i'm saying the president is pushing forward on things that we know have broad-based support and that we can immediately get done. at the same time, we're looking at the best way forward to push these other things through, whether it's on a state level, a federal level. we're looking at the best process forward because the president does have to work within the constitution, we can't just write things down and make them wall. the president has to follow a process and he will go through the process and determine the best path forward on a number of issued that he's supported.

>> let me ask you about the manchin-toomey legislation. obviously in this proposal, can you tell us whether or not he supports the idea of background checks for online purchases and private sales? >> the president supports fixing the problems within the background check system that we have outlined in some of the legislation that we support. one last question. >> thank you. the president tweeted he said not much political support to put it mildly for raising the age. i've looked at every poll. the support is 78% to 80%. rasmussen was 70% what is he talking about? >> he's talking about congress, not online polls. >> he's determined there's no support in congress for this? >> not broad-based support that

can push this through at this time that doesn't mean that we're ignoring the concept or not looking at how we can build a coalition of support for it. we're still determining what the best path forward is and a number of other issues. >> thanks, guys. >> shepard: well, there's sarah sanders at the press briefing talking about gun control and the president's position. it's not true. it's not factually accurate. there's broad-based support for raising the gun ladies and gentlemen limit. a limit of 21 and they're talking about doing it for everyone else. the president said on the kids, i'll go strong on this, work on the age thing. he came up to the general public and said to the congress, be the nra has a lot of pressure on you, has lot of effect on you and then he met with the nra.

a.b. stoddard is here from real clear politics. and mara eliason says the support is above water. democrats are for it, republicans are for it. it's all positive. but the nra is not for it. >> right. there's several proposals that the nra opposes that has 75, 80% and 90% approval. if people look at the polling on all of these issues, closing the gun show loop hole, closing the online sale loop hole, even banning the sale of some assault-style weapons, these numbers have spiked very rapidly even since the shooting in las vegas last year. really incredible momentum.

the nra had a meeting with president trump on television when he basically rolled out his willingness on a bill of love with guns. >> shepard: that's what he called it. i forgot that one. >> he was once again talking to dianne feinstein from california. >> shepard: she was giddy. >> about working on her proposal. he taunted republicans in the room including senator pat toomey who went against the nra with senator manchin with a background check bill that did not include an age restriction. he said why didn't you have the age restriction? you're afraid of the nra. so the age restriction was the provision that president trump was going to fight the nra on. one day later, they met with him and they tweeted out before he could that he and vice president pence do not support any gun control. the words no gun control. so that shut it down and we've

been waiting for them to admit it ever since. what the white house line is, we're looking for things that are practical. let's see what the states can do, let's change the conversation and let's get to this later. they don't want to say they're never going to look at this stuff. they're saying it's not possible right now. >> shepard: so what happens this time is what happens evenry time. it's what happened after new town, it's what happened after florida, after the pulse nightclub, after las vegas. it's what happened when luke widham, back in the day before there was a columbine, when he shot up the place in pearl, mississippi, same thing. it happens every time. the nra gets to them and that's that. you didn't like it, but that's the fact of what happened. >> shep, i think -- i know there's members of congress working on bipartisan plans to do things like -- not the age restriction but closing the gun show and the online sale loop

hole and other things with these red flags. and risk notices. the thing is, they know that there's the president is not going to take the lead so here doing it quietly. i don't think republicans will do anything unless the middle of the summer comes and they see that people are turning into single issue voters. right now you have single issue voters on gun rights, but not gun control. once they see it materializes as an electoral peril, we won't see anything. >> shepard: all right. new subject. moon township, pennsylvania, southwestern, trump country, won it by 20 points. a house of representatives to represent the area. a new poll out and looks like a democrat is winning in trump country, if you believe the polls, which i don't know ifdown do or not. >> the polling looks bad for the

republican. because as you said, this is a district that drop won by 20 points. connor lamb is pulling ahead in some polls. this is -- i think the polling could help republican turnout and rick saccone could win. president trump didn't talk about him much at the rally. it was much about himself. he made clear to the voters, don't embarrass me. get out and vote. i won this district. he was telling them, let's not let this become an embarrassment. we need to turn out the vote. connor lamb is running as a moderate. he doesn't talk about trump. he's a federal prosecutor and a marine. he's 33. very good composure. just a very appealing candidate. it's scaring republicans. >> shepard: a.b., we'll see what

happens in moon township. >> thanks. >> shepard: and more on the poisoning of a russian spy. does the white house condemn the russians? no.

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>> shepard: continuing coverage of breaking news. the white house press secretary sarah sanders calling the poisoning of the former russian spy and his daughter and o outrage. she made that comment at the briefing. the leader of great britains saying the russians did this. dodgy dossier. vladimir putin. the press says will you condemn them for this? no, no, not condemning the russians for this or anything. stop sort of that as they have with everything. this attack happened in england. theresa may says it's highly likely that the russians are responsible because the military

grade nerve agent traces to russian directly. rich edson is live. no condemnation at all. >> from the u.s., no. a willingness to work with the british and say we stand by to work with the british we haven't heard that yesterday here. but what we do have is that theresa may saying this is a russian agent. the first is that russia is responsible for this attack. the second part according to theresa may is that russia has lost control of the nerve agent. either way, they have summoned the russian ambassador to great britain. by tomorrow, she wants an answer to which scenario this is. >> we must now stand ready to take more extensive measures. mr. speaker, on wednesday we will consider in detail the response from the russian state. should there be no credible response, we will conclude that

this action unamounts to an unlawful use of force against the united kingdom. >> a british reporter in russian asked about this and whether or not the russian government was responsible. you first get to the bottom of things over there. after that, we can discuss it. and dimitri peskov says they have nothing to do with it. >> shepard: sounds like they're at an impasse. the british seem to think that they're responsible hand the white house, we stand with them. >> shepard: right. >> right. there's a question if the united states does anything. it seems as though the state department and the white house are saying that we stand by the british and we'll wait and see what their move is. here's the white house. >> we've been monitoring the incident closely. the use of a lethal nerve agent

is an outrage. the attack was reckless and irresponsible. we offer the fullest condemnations. >> you're not saying that russia was behind the attack? >> right now we're standing with our u.k. allies. they're still working through the details of that. we're going to continue to work with the u.k. and we certainly stand with them throughout this process. >> the british say their response depends on what the russian ambassador says. as for the united states, officials say they're expecting at least sometime soon for more sanctions to come out against russians. that's in response to the election interference of 2016, shep. >> shepard: thanks very much. rich edson. there's worth that north korean dictator kim jong-un is looking to sign a peace treaty with the united states. sign a peace treaty. we'll see what that could mean, which each side would demand

ahead of a possible sit-down. first, extreme weather alert. middle of march. heading to the northeast. days after the nor'easter slammed the northeast. adam klotz, what is this like? >> march, we get it. you're coming in as a lion. we're seeing the snow fall in the mid-atlantic and getting closer to the coast, which means a little more snow as you head that direction. we're looking at a winter watch in new york city. if you run up a little farther to the north and to the -- back to the west, these are areas that we're getting winter storm warnings. outside of boston, that's a blizzard warning at this point. that's where this system will be the worst. here's the future radar. you notice clipping areas to extreme new england. so running you up to boston, portland. major cities like new york city, you'll feel it. a couple inches of snow. as you run that direction, we're looking at 8-13 inches in

boston. the same in portland. another big system here as we wrap up march. we'll see how the second half goes. more "shepard smith reporting" after the break.

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>> shepard: all right. there's more of the north korean dictator kim jong-un wants to sign a peace treaty with the united states after he meets with president trump. that's according to a south

korean newspaper. this comes days after president trump accepted kim's offer to meet. no sitting american president has ever met with a leader of north korean. let's bring in michael o'hanlan. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> shepard: as the story goes, the president of the two presidents are talking about stuff. and saying if we're going to do something, we'll meet. i'll do it. the president said let's have a meeting. this is norm normal, is it? >> it's not normal. as you pointed out, it's never happened with north korea. you also mentioned the peace treaty idea. that's not as crazy as it sounds. all it means is formally ending the korean war. we've had an armistice since 1953. you'd have to have north korea agree not to attack south korea as part of that kind of a deal. obviously you couldn't count on the words being true.

you'd have to maintain military deterrence. a lot of people review that as a reward that we give the north at the end of the conference. it's worth contemplating that. what we can't do is give up the u.s. south korean alliance or military presence just because the north koreans make some concessions on their nuclear program. our presence has to endure. >> shepard: in the past, we asked them to denuclearize before we talked. that's old stuff. i wouldn't do this for anything, michael. there's breaking news. it's important. it's now. this is austin, talks. three different explosive packag packages. they think they may have one person sending bombs to folks. we're trying to see who might be in danger. we're expecting specifics. they're introducing the players now. we're hoping to find out more.

austin texas live. >> our call came to the 6700 block of galindo and we received multiple calls of an explosion. a few calls indicated that there was a victim that had been injured in this explosion. we had multiple units respond from the police department, the fire department and ems that responded immediately to the scene and started providing care to the patient that was injured. as you know, we were on the scene of another explosion at a location up north. many of the resources left that scene to come down here. what we know has happened on this incident, similar to the other two incidents, the one both from this morning and the one that occurred on march 2, is that the victim came outside of her residence and found a package out front.

she picked up the package. at that point, the box detonated at that point. she was significantly injured in that explosion. she's a 75-year-old hispanic female. she was transported to the hospital by emergency medical services and is currently listed in critical but stable condition. we again are praying and hoping for a recovery from this incident. this, again, is the third in what we believe to be related incidents that have occurred in the past ten days. we want the community to be aware of what is going on. because again, based on evidence that we have at this scene as well as at the other two scenes where we had the explosion, this evidence makes us believe that these incidents are related. we don't have a specific victimology or ideology that we

identified. assigning a motive at this point is not -- we're not possible to do that based on the stage that we're at in the investigation. we're not ruling anything out at this point. when you rule something out, you limit your focus of the investigation and you might miss something. so at this point, we're willing to investigate any avenue that may be involved and behind these attacks. we're imploring the community, if you know anything about these attacks, it's imperative that you come forward and you let us know. we're having innocent people getting hurt across this community and it's important that we come together as a community and solve this. we have the continued support and partnership with our federal agencies, the atf division is here along with the fbi, the united states postal service and many other agencies are working with us. we currently have the evidence response team from san antonio in austin. they have their dallas team

coming here to assist us as well. the atf is bringing in their national response team in austin to help support us as we go through this investigation. we're putting together a task force that will work jointly and we will leave no stone unturned. that being said, this will be a lengthy investigation putting all of this evidence together as we work towards the conclusion. all three incidents that have occurred have occurred at residences. we don't want to have people be overly alarmed but it's important that people be vigilant and be aware for things that look suspicious. if you've had a package show up at your home and you were not expecting a delivery, if the package delivered to your door step looks suspicious in any way, call 911. report it. we will respond.

it may take awhile to get there, because we've responded to several cause but all law enforcement is joining in. we have explosive k-9s from the department of public safety, the atf and pulling other resources as well. we want to ensure this community that we're going to do everything we can to keep you safe while this investigation is ongoing up until that time that we conclude it with an arrest. we don't know at this point what that time line looks like. we also know we have a music festival here in town and a lot of visitors. it's important for those here in austin for the spring festival to be aware of what is going on. enjoy yourself, have a good time no reason to believe that you're at any greatest risk other than be aware, look for things suspicious. we've been putting the message out repeatedly, if you say something, say something. if you see something out of place, if you see something suspicious, it's important that you call us. for any residents that have the

suspicious package, under no situation should you move them or touch them. instead, make the call. exit your residence or go to the back of the residence until we can get there and deem it safe. this investigation is ongoing. we believe it's related to the other two incidents in the city. we have no specific ideology or victimology behind this and it will remain an ongoing investigation while we pursue any and every lead with that, i'll open it up for conditions. we are in the preliminary stages. there's not a lot of information to put out to protect the integrity of this investigation. >> [question inaudible] >> we don't know yet whether the victims are the intended targets on these cases. again, they're being left at homes where there's either multiple residents or might etch be left at the wrong address. that's part of the investigation

going on now. that's what we're trying to identify, what is the victimology and what might be in common amongst these victims. >> any evidence that the devices that are similar to the packages? >> these are box-type deliveries. that's why we're saying, if you receive a suspicious package, a suspicious cardboard package -- i don't want to limit this to anything. if you receive a suspicious package, call us and let us come out. a device like this can be hidden in many different ways. it's important. if you're not expecting a delivery and yet one shows up and it's not from someone that you business with, it's important that you call us. >> [question inaudible] >> correct. the first one we believe it was an isolated incident. we have nothing to believe to believe that it was nothing

larger than that. standing here today, having had the two incidents today and doing an initial review of the evidence that we have, we believe they're related at this time. >> we're not going to go into specifics on the actual package because of protecting the investigation. that's why it's important for the community. any package that you were not expecting or looks suspicious, call it. >> [question inaudible] >> we're a large city with a large police department. we will mag this. i will say we've had offers for assistance from other agencies to bring in help if needed. we've received a call from the governor's office as well already asking if we need any assistance. so we're working through that right now. we're putting our plan together. as i mentioned, we've brought in additional explosive k-9 teams into austin so we can respond to the calls coming in where individuals have reported suspicious packages. it's not time to panic but time

to be vigilant and pay attention. we need the community's participation. if you see a suspicious package on your porch or somebody else's, let us know. >> the package, was it left by ups, the postal service? you said the second one was not. >> we do not believe this package today was left by any of the official mail delivery services, whether it's the united states postal service, ups, dhl. that will be part of the investigation. standing here today, we don't believe it was delivered by any official delivery service. >> [question inaudible] >> they can exploit -- explode by being moved. don't handle it, don't touch it. call us. >> did they say how long the package was at their door? they have any idea when it was

dropped off? >> no. the victims when they have seen the packages, that i have gone out and handled them in some way or another and we had the explosions occur. >> [question inaudible] >> we're working on victimology right now. one of the things you want to do when you investigate what you believe to be a series of incidents. you want to work for commonality where the paths may have crossed so you can determine if it's connected or random. we have not determined that. >> [question inaudible] >> when you rule something out, you limit your focus and may miss things. what we've had to date, we've had two victims that were african american and the victim of the latest victim was a 75-year-old hispanic female. we're still working to identify whether or not that may play a role. we're not going to rule that out as we are any other potential motive.

>> were they relative in size? big, small? >> i can't go into the specific sizes. they're an average size delivery box. they're not exceptionally large. >> [question inaudible] >> we have a pattern of incidents that occurred in this community the past ten days. we believe they're related. that's what we're focused on right now, the connection between the three. >> is there a vehicle or description of a person? >> we don't have any descriptions of suspects or vehicles. that's why it's so important that the community, if you believe you know something, if you have heard something, however trivial you may believe it to be, that may be the piece of information that we need to crack this case. so it's important that you report that to us. >> [question inaudible] >> no, we have -- since this morning's press conference when we implored the community to let

us know if you see something suspicious, we have received several calls. none of those calls have turned out to be anything suspicious or anything explosive. >> do they seem to be amateur made or expert or expensive? the detonations. >> the bomb teches are putting this together. it's for the experts for the atm and the bomb squad. we have an individual that has the ability to construct the bombs and have them successfully detonate and cause what we've seen so far. >> [question inaudible] >> we have not determined what they're using as the explosive charge. >> are you calling this a serial bomber? >> we're not calling ate serial bomber but we have a pattern of incidences that have happened

and we're concerned about it. we've brought all of the resources to bear. we want the community to be vigilant and no stone left unturned. what you've seen behind us here and the other scene is a complete cooperative effort between the federal agencies, the local agencies and we're now cooperating and being provided assist answer the through the state agencies. this is of interest to all of law enforcement because this is someone that everyone wants to see put to an end and stop this -- stop these bombs. >> how powerful are the explosives? what is the circumference that they're cover something ? >> they're powerful enough -- you saw what happened at the initial incident that it caused significant damage to the front porch area and significant da