Rick Laude said he saw Anthony Quinn Warner standing in his mailbox on December 21 and stopped the car to speak to him. After asking how Warner’s elderly mother was, Laude said she casually asked him, “Is Santa going to bring anything good for Christmas?” Laude said Warner smiled and said, “Ah yes, Nashville and the world will never forget me.”
Laude, 57, a commercial truck driver, said he didn’t like the comment very much and thought Warner just meant that “something good” was going to happen to him. He said he was “speechless” after reading that authorities identified Warner as the terrorism suspect.
“Nothing about this guy raised red flags,” said Laude. “He was just quiet.”
This is a breaking news update. An earlier version of this report is below.
With federal authorities identifying the man believed to be behind the Christmas attack in Nashville, authorities now turn to the monumental task of discovering the reason for the explosion that severely damaged dozens of downtown buildings and injured three people.
While officers on Sunday named Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, as the man behind the mysterious explosion in which he was killed, the reason remained elusive.
“We hope to get an answer. Sometimes it just isn’t possible,” said David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, in an interview on Monday on NBC’s “Today” program. “The best way to find the reason is to speak to the individual. We cannot do that in this case.”
In just a few days, hundreds of tips and clues were sent to public security agencies. Even so, authorities have so far not provided information on what possibly led Warner to detonate the explosion. According to authorities, he had not appeared on the radar before Christmas. A TBI records 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,” added Rausch.
In addition, authorities have not provided information on why Warner selected the specific location for the attack, which damaged an AT&T building and continued to wreak havoc on cell phone service and police and hospital communications in several southern states. while the company was working to restore service.
WATCH | Police camera shows the moment when a bomb exploded in downtown Nashville
Forensic analysts were reviewing the evidence collected at the site of the explosion to try to identify the components of the explosives, as well as information from the US Bomb Data Center for intelligence and investigations, according to a law enforcement official who said the investigators were examining the digital footprint of the explosives. Warner and financial history, as well as a recent deed transfer from a home in the Nashville suburb that they researched.
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.
Korneski said on Sunday that the authorities were analyzing all the reasons and interviewing Warner acquaintances to try to determine what may have motivated him.
The bombing took place on a holiday morning, well before the city center streets began to move, and was accompanied by a taped announcement warning anyone nearby that a bomb was going to explode soon. 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.
Warner, who public records show he had experience with electronics and alarms and had also worked as a computer consultant for a real estate agent in Nashville, was considered a person of interest in the attack since at least Saturday, when federal and local investigators converged to the house connected to it.
Federal agents could be seen looking around the property, searching the house and yard. A Google Maps image captured in May 2019 showed a recreational vehicle similar to the one that exploded parked in the yard, but was not on the property on Saturday, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
On Sunday morning, the police formally indicated that Warner was under investigation.
WATCH | The video shows the consequences of the explosion:
Authorities said Warner’s identification was based on several important pieces of evidence, including the DNA found at the site of the explosion. Researchers had previously revealed that human remains were found nearby.
In addition, Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators retrieved parts of the RV from the debris of the explosion and were able to link the vehicle’s identification number to an RV registered in Warner’s name, officials said.
“We are still following leads, but at the moment there is no indication that other people are involved,” said Korneski. “We reviewed hours of safety video around the recreational vehicle. We didn’t see any other people involved.”
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. Suddenly, the warning stopped and “Downtown” started playing.
The trailer exploded soon after, sending black smoke and flames from the center of Nashville’s tourist scene, an area full of restaurants and shops.
Buildings swayed and windows shattered on the streets away from the explosion near an AT&T-owned building that is one block from the company’s office tower, a landmark in the city center.
But by Sunday, just a few blocks from where the bombing took place, tourists had already begun to fill the sidewalks of Lower Broadway, a central entertainment district. Some took selfies while others tried to get as close as possible to the blast site, blocked by police barricades.
The previous Sunday, police officers who responded provided harrowing details, sometimes choking and reliving the moments that led to the explosion.
“This will tie us up forever, for the rest of my life,” Officer James Wells, who suffered some hearing loss from the explosion, told reporters at a news conference. “Christmas will never be the same again.”
Officer Brenna Hosey said she and her colleagues knocked on six or seven doors in nearby apartments to warn people to evacuate. She particularly remembered a frightened mother of four.
“I don’t have children, but I have cousins and nieces, people I love who are small,” said Hosey, adding that she had to beg the family to leave the building as soon as possible.
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