The Nashville Metropolitan Police Department released footage of a policeman’s body camera documenting the moments leading up to the Christmas attack that shook the city center, leaving eight people injured and several buildings damaged.
Authorities identified the terrorism suspect as Anthony Q. Warner, a resident of the Nashville suburb of Antioch.
The nearly 13-minute video shows police officers inspecting the area, carrying out a pre-bomb evacuation and speculating on what the threat might be. The RV’s warning can be heard as the police pass, moments before the explosion occurs.
The footage, entitled “Officer Sipos’ Body Camera Footage, 12/25/2020”, was released on Monday, three days after the attack.
At 6:14 am, police officers are shown evacuating a person located in a nearby alley, stating that he “is not in trouble”, but that “something serious is happening on the way”.
The footage then changes to 6:25 am, when police officers walk alongside the RV while it displays a looped message warning people to evacuate the area and not approach the vehicle.
“This is so strange,” an officer was heard saying. “This is like something out of a movie.”
“Like, ‘The Purge’?” your counterpart asks.
“Yes,” he replies.
An officer then notes that the AT&T building where the RV is parked is the building that “houses all the hard lines for phones across the southeast.”
“It makes sense, it’s probably a bomb,” said another officer in response.
The cops then turn the corner of a street, out of sight of the RV, and a request for the fire to stand by is heard. Almost immediately afterwards, the explosion starts in the distance.
Police officers return to the scene, helping to evacuate pedestrians while horns and fire alarms sound in the background.
Police officers instruct pedestrians, including a man who runs past with his loved one lying on his back, to go as far as possible from the blast site.
David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, told the Associated Press on Monday: “It looks like 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 partners. ”