TEXAS - A new round of violence rocked Texas today, killing at least 80 people in a wave of attacks that produced the deadliest day since the conclusion of the Presidential elections. At least 60 of the deaths resulted from a bombing at a celebratory meeting of President-Elect Allen Rickham's Houston campaign office.
Preliminary reports from Houston police said that 52 people were killed and 64 were wounded in Houston in the gunfight. In Austin, 20 people were killed and 60 were wounded, when the radical Anti-Evolved group Humanis First set off explosives at a Linderman Act registration center thursday morning. Other attacks across much of the south accounted for perhaps two dozen more dead, officials said, and most cite backlash against the election of Pro-Evolved spokesman Allen Rickham.
The killings come on top of attacks that left more than 50 people injured on Wednesday, as violence was escalating again after a lull around the time of last month's elections.
The new wave of violence could complicate the negotiations going on between political parties over the potential repeal of the Linderman Act following the inaugriation of President-Elect Rickham on January 20th, as reprisal attacks from Pro-Evolved groups are expected to come in the wake of these attacks.
The President, today, issued a statement condemning the recent attacks. "These groups of dark terror will not succeed through these cowardly acts in dissuading the American people in their choice of President and the direction that America wishes to take towards national unity and human rights," he said.
Ted Vasser, the chief of police in Houston said the attack took place about 20 yards outside of the Rickham campaign headquarters at 10:15 in the morning in the middle of a large crowd. The area is packed with outdoor eateries and public sitting areas, he said, and the campaign headquarters had a higher number of visitors than usual.
Vasser said the group Humanis First claimed responsibility for the attacks, and that the bomb was attached to a Registered Evolved who had gone missing several weeks prior. The attackers arrived in a pickup truck, swerving into the crowd before depositing the kidnapping victim into the group. He had been was wearing an explosive belt under clothing packed with metal balls, and was also fastened with hand grenades, one of which failed to detonate.
In Austin, the target of the attack was a line of about 25 Evolved volunteering for registration at the largest Linderman Act registration center in Texas.
The Homeland Security statement said that the registrants were responding to recent amendments to the Registration Act, allowing for Evolved who willingly egister to recieve large Tax Incentives from the federal government. Texas is on of four states including California, Michigan, and Florida currently testing the Tax Incentives plan.
Other incidents of violence were reported across much of the south, according to news services. Reuters said that two more National Guard soldiers died, killed by stray gunfire in Los Angeles, California along with two Evolved who were a part of election-day celebrations following President-Elect Rickham's successful candidacy for President.
With less than a week having passed since President-Elect Rickham's stunning defeat of both Petrelli and Mitchell's superior-funded campaigns, speculation has arisen among many Anti-Evolved groups that Rickham's campaign may have been involved in vote fraud through manipulation of DieBold electronic voting devices in many of the key states that the Democratic candidate secured staggering victories in.
With the 2-year anniversary of the bombing in New York City that resulted in the institution of the Linderman Act on the horizon, many people across the United States are bracing for what they fear may be retalliation against the events in Texas and beyond.