Steven Aldrich, 66, was taken into custody and has been booked on a charge of possessing “components of explosives.”
AUSTIN, Texas — City leaders gathered Thursday morning to provide an update after the Austin Police Department (APD) detonated explosive materials inside a South Austin home early Wednesday evening. One person is in custody in connection with the materials.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson stressed at the press conference Thursday that Wednesday’s detonation was not related in any way to the home explosion in northwest Austin on Sunday morning. The cause of that incident has yet to be determined.
As for the South Austin incident, APD Chief Lisa Davis said on Tuesday evening, a concerned citizen called police about potential bond material in a home on Vintage Stave Road. Patrol officers responded and immediately called the department’s bomb technicians.
Once those technicians arrived, Davis said investigative processes began, from obtaining a search warrant to getting people out of the house. Davis said the suspect, identified as 66-year-old Steven Aldrich, was immediately taken into custody.
According to Davis, Special Operations Det. Elijah Myrick stayed overnight waiting for the search warrant and APD “did not ever leave that scene” from the moment response began. The department was assisted by crews from the Austin Fire Department (AFD), Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the FBI.
The search warrant was executed and investigators found “a large quantity of homemade explosives and explosive precursors” inside the home. With the help of the other responding agencies, APD bomb technicians executed a plan to render the scene safe.
Davis said during the 24-hour investigative process, it was determined that the only way to safely detonate some of the explosive material was to do so on site.
“So, if you can imagine, getting inside and finding all of these chemicals – and again, in that 24-hour process, it was also about chemists getting involved, ATF, all of those professionals weighing in on what this looks like and what – the potential that these chemicals could cause,” Davis said.
Myrick said APD needed to determine how volatile each chemical was, because when technicians start manipulating chemicals, they can become more volatile. He said sometimes, APD is able to transport small qualities of explosive materials, but the quantity of these materials was so large that a controlled, on-site detonation was needed.
Davis said residents nearby were evacuated hours before the detonation, nearby streets were closed and the explosive materials were detonated at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The home containing the materials sustained major damage, and the home next door sustained minor damage to its siding. No injuries or other damaged homes were reported, according to Davis.
Who is Steven Aldrich?
The suspect in this incident, Steven Aldrich, was arrested and has been booked into the Travis County Jail on a third-degree felony charge of possessing “components of explosives.”
Records show Aldrich had a previous explosives-related arrest in Williamson County, for which he was sentenced to six years of confinement in 2019. He was released on parole in August 2022 and had two weeks of parole remaining for that offense.
“Our SWAT team and our EOD [bomb squad] is familiar with him and his bomb-making shenanigans from the past,” Chief Davis said.
Davis said no additional details about this incident will be released at this time, as the investigation is ongoing.
“The entire incident could have ended in a much worse scenario,” Davis said. “I’m very thankful and I’m very proud of our EOD [Explosive Ordinance Disposal] and all of our federal partners here that no lives were lost and that no one was injured.”