Episode 3: Hope | Austin Bomber

Introducing: Season Two

Darkness - Episode 1: The First Attack | Austin Bomber

<p>On a quiet suburban street in northeast Austin, 39-year-old father and husband Stephan House prepares to go to work. He spots a package on his porch. The box explodes in his hands. His neighbor runs to his porch and tries to help the bleeding man as he talks to a 911 operator, but there’s nothing he can do. In the aftermath, the Austin police tell the public that the bombing seems to be an isolated incident and that there is no cause for alarm.</p>

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Episode 1: The First Attack | Austin Bomber

The story you're about to hear contains brief mentions of physical violence that are gruesome

Please keep this in mind as you continue to listen to this podcast.

It's 6.45am on March 2nd, 2018 in Austin, Texas.

Sean Phillips gets out of bed and wakes up his children, ages 6 and 8.

He heads downstairs and sinks back into his living room couch, waiting for them to get ready

He's in his early 40s and has three piercings on his nose alone and tattoos that crawl

His look can be intimidating once a bar even refused him entry because of it.

But if you look closer, his eyes reveal the gentle father he is at home.

His hair hangs past his shoulders, but it's usually swept up into a ponytail or bun for

Sometimes it's his natural tone of ash he brown and sometimes it's dyed bright colors.

He works as a body piercer which kind of explains things and his wife is a tattoo artist.

Despite their edgy, outward appearance, they live a pretty low-key lifestyle with their

son and daughter in a two-story brick home.

Sean sits on his couch in the living room.

6.50 a.m. and he's waiting for his kids to come downstairs when he hears a loud boom.

He looks for the source of the noise and is met with a sight he'll never forget.

On August 1, 1966, a sniper climbed the steps of the University of Texas at Austin’s 27-story tower. Seventeen people were killed and more than 30 others were injured. Fifty-six years later, mass shootings make headlines nearly every week. And the University of Texas tower looms over campus, a reminder of one of the first mass school shootings in United States history that has long been forgotten.

In season four of “Darkness,” host Sara Kinney walks through the day of the University of Texas Tower shooting and outlines its legacy among the decades-long epidemic of gun violence in schools. Hear from survivors, heroes and family members about their day in 1966, their lives since then and the state of gun control today.

0:00.0	You're listening to The Drag.
0:07.0	The story you're about to hear contains brief mentions of physical violence that are gruesome
0:14.8	and disturbing in nature.
0:17.4	Please keep this in mind as you continue to listen to this podcast.
0:24.7	It's 6.45am on March 2nd, 2018 in Austin, Texas.
0:30.8	Sean Phillips gets out of bed and wakes up his children, ages 6 and 8.
0:36.9	He heads downstairs and sinks back into his living room couch, waiting for them to get ready
0:43.4	before he drives some telemetry school.
0:46.2	He's in his early 40s and has three piercings on his nose alone and tattoos that crawl
0:52.3	from his toes to his temples.
0:55.8	His look can be intimidating once a bar even refused him entry because of it.
1:03.2	But if you look closer, his eyes reveal the gentle father he is at home.
1:09.9	His hair hangs past his shoulders, but it's usually swept up into a ponytail or bun for
1:15.8	convenience.
1:17.4	Sometimes it's his natural tone of ash he brown and sometimes it's dyed bright colors.
1:25.0	He works as a body piercer which kind of explains things and his wife is a tattoo artist.
1:31.4	Despite their edgy, outward appearance, they live a pretty low-key lifestyle with their
1:36.0	son and daughter in a two-story brick home.
1:40.3	Sean sits on his couch in the living room.
1:42.8	6.50 a.m. and he's waiting for his kids to come downstairs when he hears a loud boom.
1:51.9	He sprints outside, mind spinning.
1:55.2	He looks for the source of the noise and is met with a sight he'll never forget.
	...

Episode 1: The First Attack | Austin Bomber

Darkness

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