Nashville bombing: Anthony Quinn Warner left hints of plan

In the days before a bomb detonated in downtown Nashville on Christmas, Anthony Quinn Warner changed his life in a way that suggests he never intended to survive the explosion that killed him and injured three other people.

Warner, 63, gave away his car and told the recipient he had cancer. A month before the bombing, he signed a document transferring his old suburban Nashville home to a California woman for nothing in return.

The IT consultant told an employer that he was retiring.

But he did not leave a clear fingerprint or other obvious clue to explain why he caused the explosion in his parked RV or played a message warning people to flee before it damaged dozens of buildings and left no mobile phone service in the area. .

As investigators tried to piece together a possible motive for the attack, a neighbor recalled a recent conversation with Warner that seemed sinister only in hindsight.

Rick Laude told The Associated Press on Monday that he saw Warner standing by his mailbox less than a week before Christmas and stopped in his car to talk. After asking how Warner’s elderly mother was doing, Laude said he casually asked her, “Will Santa bring you something nice for Christmas?”

Warner smiled and said, “Oh yeah, Nashville and the world will never forget me,” Laude recalled.

Laude said he didn’t think much of the comment and thought Warner just wanted to say that “something good” was going to happen to him financially. He was speechless when he learned that authorities had identified Warner as the attacker.

“Nothing like this raised any red flags,” Laude said.

As investigators continued to search for a motive, body camera video released Monday night by Nashville police offered more information about the moments leading up to the blast and its aftermath.

Officer Michael Sipos’s camera footage captures officers walking past the motorhome parked across the street as the recorded warning sounds and then helping people evacuate after the thunderous off-camera shot. Car alarms and sirens sound when a police dispatch calls all available personnel and people stumble through the glass-lined downtown streets.

David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said authorities hope to establish motive, but sometimes they just can’t.

“The best way to find a motive is to talk to the individual. We won’t be able to do that in this case,” Rausch said Monday in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.

Investigators are analyzing Warner’s belongings collected during the investigation, including a computer and portable storage unit, and are continuing to interview witnesses as they try to identify a possible motive, a law enforcement official said. A review of its financial transactions also uncovered potential component purchases to make pumps, the official said.

Warner had recently gifted a vehicle and told the person to whom it had been given that he had been diagnosed with cancer, although it is unclear if he actually had cancer, the official said. Investigators used some items collected from the vehicle, including a hat and gloves, to match Warner’s DNA, and DNA was taken from one of his family members, the official said.

The official was unable to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Warner also apparently gifted his home in Antioch, Tennessee, to a Los Angeles woman a month before the bombing. A property record dated November 25 indicates that Warner transferred the house to the woman in exchange for not receiving money. The woman’s signature is not on that document.

Warner had worked as a computer consultant for Nashville real estate agent Steve Fridrich, who told the AP in a text message that Warner had said he would retire earlier this month.

Authorities said Warner had not been on their radar before Christmas. A police report released Monday showed that Warner’s only arrest was for a marijuana-related charge in 1978.

“It appears that the intention was more destruction than death, but again, all of that remains speculation at this point as we continue our investigation with all of our partners,” Rausch said.

Officials have not provided information on why Warner selected the particular location for the bombing, which damaged an AT&T building and wreaked havoc on cell phone service and police and hospital communications in several southern states. By Monday, the company said that most services had been restored for residents and businesses.

Forensic analysts were reviewing evidence from the blast site to try to identify the components of the explosives, as well as information from the U.S. Bomb Data Center for intelligence and investigative leads, according to a law enforcement official who said investigators were examining Warner’s financial and fingerprint. history.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said federal agents were examining a number of potential leads and pursuing various theories, including the possibility that the AT&T building was attacked.

The bombing took place on a festive morning long before the downtown streets were filled with activity. Police were responding to a shooting report on Friday when they came across the RV sounding a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes.

Then, for reasons that may never be known, the audio switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s 1964 hit “Downtown” shortly before the explosion.