NASHVILLE – Federal agents took aim at a house in Nashville on Saturday and began to search at least 500 lanes after an explosion hit downtown on Christmas Day, injuring three people, damaging dozens of historic buildings and leaving much of the city in panic as communications dropped.
The vehicle detonated around 6:30 am on Christmas morning in what the police called an “intentional act”. The officers responded to a call that shots were fired in the area, where they found a trailer playing a recording warning that a bomb would explode “in 15 minutes”. The six local police officers who rushed to evacuate the sleeping residents were hailed as “heroes” for saving civilians’ lives.
CBS News reporter Jeff Pegues reported on Saturday that the police identified a person of interest– a 63-year-old man named Anthony Quinn Warner. MSNBC confirmed that Warner’s house was being searched in connection with the bombing. Authorities refused to confirm such details at a news conference on Saturday, even after the CBS News report, but said they were not looking for “another matter”.
As questions revolved around the circumstances of the bombing, Warner’s neighbors on Bakertown Road were shaken by the sudden police activity and shocked that he might be involved in the explosion.
“They are one of the best families that anyone could ever want to meet,” said Bernice Gilley, who said she has known the Warner family since she and her husband moved to the street 56 years ago.
Like most people on this stretch of Bakertown, Gilley and her husband were shocked when local and federal agents showed up on Saturday morning. Gilley feared that Warner’s mother had fallen or been injured. She told her husband to go see the older woman, but the agents stopped him and said that Anthony Warner was interested in the attack.
The Gilleys were shocked by the news. “I’m still very worried about her,” said Gilley. “She is a great friend.”
A decades-old resident who knew the Warner family did not even know that Anthony existed before law enforcement officers arrived and started asking questions.
His current neighbors agreed that Anthony Warner was very quiet. “He’s a very private person,” one told The Daily Beast. “As you can see, your entire house is surrounded.”
Neighbors noticed that the trailer disappeared just before Christmas. Some kids on the street saw the photos from the trailer online and asked their parents if it could be the same one Warner had seen, but no one really believed it was.
The house was transferred from Warner to a woman through a complaint suit just four weeks ago, according to public records. The woman, Michelle Swing, told The Daily Mail that she paid nothing for the house.
“In the state of Tennessee, you can transfer a property to someone else without your consent or signature or anything,” said Swing. “I didn’t even buy the house, he just passed it on to me without my knowledge. So this is all very strange to me, is all I can say. “
Swing did not clarify what his connection to Warner was, if any. Neighbors interviewed by The Daily Beast said they knew nothing about the house getting a new owner.
But a second home on Bakertown Road was also moved from Warner to Swing for quitclaim last year. The records list Warner as a bachelor.
Davidson County records showed that Warner was found guilty of an unspecified felony charge in 1980, following an arrest in January 1978.
The Daily Beast’s attempts to contact Warner and those listed in the property records were unsuccessful.
More than 24 hours after the explosion hit the city, residents were still struggling for answers.
The three people injured in the explosion were everything supposedly he was discharged from the hospital on Friday, and officials repeatedly emphasized one point throughout his briefing on Saturday: the city will continue to function, even if it remains under curfew and dealing with power outages.
In addition to emergency services and cell phone services being disabled in many parts of the city after the explosion, internet and television reception has also declined throughout the area, and some companies have been unable to process credit card transactions. At least 41 companies were damaged, according to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who said it was “a miracle that no resident died”.
A central AT&T office was also affected by the explosion, with a fire igniting during the night, leading to the evacuation of the building, CBS News reported.
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake emphasized on Saturday that “Nashville is safe,” and FBI special agent Doug Korneski said there was “no indication” of secondary threats.
But the question of why remained, as well as the question of whether anyone was inside the trailer at the time of the explosion: Drake said Friday night that “fabric we believe to be remains” was found at the scene. The authorities have not yet been able to confirm much more than that, however.
This weekend’s events were particularly distressing for people who live near Warner on Bakertown Road. Most of the other brick duplexes on its street are full of refugees and immigrants who came to the United States fleeing violence in Iraq, Africa and Latin America. For them, the explosion takes them back to a reality that they desperately tried to leave behind forever.
“It’s too much,” said a woman who asked to speak anonymously. “I just can’t get over it.”
“There are people in the world who walk outside and think they are going to step on a bomb,” agreed her friend. “It is really scary when you think you have escaped this and come to freedom, and then it happens. I guess you never know what can happen in your neighborhood. “
Although neighbors want a solution to the bombing, they hope that Warner is not really involved. They thought of innocent explanations as they watched federal agents conduct their operation: maybe he drove his trailer into the mountains on holiday or maybe he sold his trailer and went on vacation.
“We didn’t see anything suspicious,” said one.