The lizard or reptilian conspiracy theory involves the belief that shape-shifting reptilian creatures appear in human form and are committed to taking over the world.
Warner, officials believe, also spent time hunting for alien life forms in a nearby state park.
It is not clear whether any of these beliefs or behaviors are related in any way to the bombing.
This is a breaking news update. An earlier version of this report is below.
In the days before detonating a bomb in downtown Nashville for Christmas, Anthony Quinn Warner changed his life in ways that suggest he never intended to survive the explosion that killed him and injured three others.
Warner, 63, gave his car, telling the recipient that he had cancer. A month before the attack, he signed a document transferring his old home in a Nashville suburb to a California woman in exchange for nothing. The computer consultant told an employer that he was retiring.
But he didn’t leave a clear fingerprint or any other obvious clue to explain why he detonated the explosion in his parked recreational vehicle or played a message warning people to flee before he damaged dozens of buildings and stopped cell service in the area. .
WATCH: Nashville PD releases camera footage of the Christmas Day blast body
While investigators were trying to discover a possible reason for the attack, a neighbor remembered a recent conversation with Warner that seemed threatening only in retrospect.
Rick Laude told the Associated Press on Monday that he saw Warner standing in his mailbox less than a week before Christmas and stopped the car to talk. After asking how Warner’s elderly mother was, Laude said she casually asked him, “Is Santa going to bring anything good for Christmas?”
Warner smiled and said, “Oh yes, Nashville and the world will never forget me,” recalls Laude.
Laude said he didn’t like the comment very much and thought that Warner just meant that “something good” was going to happen to him financially. He was speechless when he learned that the authorities had identified Warner as the suicide bomber.
“Nothing about this guy raised red flags,” said Laude.
As investigators continued to search for a reason, the video of the body camera released on Monday by Nashville police offered more information about the moments leading up to the explosion and its consequences.
The camera recording of police officer Michael Sipos captures police officers passing the trailer parked across the street while the recorded alert sounds and then helping people evacuate after the cameras boom. Car alarms and sirens sound when police send voice calls to all available personnel and people stumble across the glass-filled downtown streets.
David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said the authorities hope to establish a reason, but sometimes they just can’t.
“The best way to find the reason is to talk to the individual. We will not be able to do that in this case,” Rausch said on Monday in an interview with NBC’s “Today” program.
Investigators are analyzing Warner’s belongings collected during the investigation, including a computer and a portable storage unit, and continue to interview witnesses while trying to identify a potential motive, a police officer said. A review of its financial transactions also revealed potential purchases of components for making bombs, the official said.
WATCH: Police camera shows the moment a bomb exploded in downtown Nashville
Warner recently gave a vehicle and told the person who gave it that he was diagnosed with cancer, although it is not clear whether he actually had cancer, the official said. Investigators used some items collected from the vehicle, including a hat and gloves, to compare Warner’s DNA, and the 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 gave his home in Antioch, Tennessee, to a woman in Los Angeles a month before the bombing. A property registration dated November 25 indicates that Warner transferred the house to the woman in exchange for no money. The woman’s signature is not on that document.
Warner worked as a computer consultant for Nashville real estate broker Steve Fridrich, who told the AP in a text message that Warner had said he was retiring earlier this month.
WATCH: The video shows the consequences of the explosion:
Authorities said Warner was not on their radar before Christmas. A police report released on Monday showed that Warner’s only arrest was on marijuana-related charges in 1978.
“It seems that the intention was more destruction than death, but again, all of this is still speculation at this point, as we continue our investigation with all of our partners,” said Rausch.
Authorities did not provide information on why Warner selected the specific location for the attack, which damaged an AT&T building and wreaked havoc on cell phone service and police and hospital communications in several southern states. On Monday, the company said most services were restored for residents and businesses.
Forensic analysts were reviewing the evidence from the explosion site to try to identify the components of the explosives, as well as information from the U.S. Bomb Data Center for information and investigations, according to a law enforcement official who said investigators were examining the footprint. Warner’s digital and financial history.
The officer, 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 several theories, including the possibility that the AT&T building was the target.
The bombing took place on a holiday morning, long before the downtown streets were teeming with activity. Police were responding to a report of shots fired on Friday when they found the trailer with a recorded warning that a bomb would go off in 15 minutes. Then, for reasons that may never be known, the audio changed to a recording of Petula Clark’s “Downtown” hit in 1964, just before the explosion.
Copyright © 2020 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.