Austin Bombing Victim Accepted to Prestigious Music College After His Death
A 17-year-old double bassist's teacher and family received notification of his admission to the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music less than two weeks after the talented student was killed by the Austin serial bomber.
Draylen Mason was killed by a package bomb left on his doorstep on March 12, in an attack which also seriously injured his mother.
On Friday, admissions director Michael Manderen said that Mason was one of only 130 young musicians from 1,500 applicants accepted to study at Ohio’s Oberlin College next fall.
School officials had decided to offer Mason a place before his death, but applicants were only informed of the outcome of their applications Friday.
The school informed Mason’s bass teacher on Thursday that he would have been offered a place to study, and said of the murder "our hearts go out to the family and community."
Mason was one of two people killed in the bombing spree, which injured four others, including Mason’s mother.
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The first victim, 39-year-old Anthony House, attended the same Methodist church as Mason.
On Wednesday, self-confessed bomber Mark Conditt, 23, blew himself while being pursued by police.
In a video recorded by Conditt before his death, he acknowledged that people had been left without loved ones and others seriously injured in the attacks, but expressed no remorse.
"I wish I were sorry but I am not," Conditt said on a video recording he left on his cell phone hours before blowing himself up in his car Wednesday as authorities closed in, according to the Austin American-Statesman.