Nashville, Tenn. Investigators who investigated the Christmas morning explosion in Nashville now believe that the explosion was probably the result of a suicide bombing, according to two police sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Authorities said earlier that they had recovered remains at the site of the downtown Nashville attack, and an FBI official said on Saturday that agents were not looking for another suspect.
The agents are also at a home in Antioquia, southeast of Nashville, to conduct “activities authorized by the court,” FBI spokesman Jason Pack told CNN. According to a law enforcement official, a complaint about the vehicle involved in the explosion on Christmas morning took the police to the Antioquia home.
Bomb technicians cleaned the house to make sure it was safe for an evidence team to enter, Pack said. Investigators are now waiting for the evidence team to arrive and enter. Pack did not confirm who lived in the house, but neighbor Steve Schmoldt told CNN that his wife noticed police trucks last night in the neighborhood.
A recreational vehicle in a house seen by Street View on Google Maps appears to match what the law enforcement authorities have asked the public for information. Investigators believe the RV seen in the photos is the same as the center of the explosion, the police source said, but they cannot be sure why it was destroyed in the explosion.
The blast occurred Friday at 6:30 am CT, after a computer voice from a parked trailer asked people to evacuate, warning that the vehicle would explode in minutes.
The trailer explosion left at least three people injured, set several other vehicles on fire, destroyed several buildings on the block and disrupted wireless service in much of the region.
Police officers provided little new information at a news conference on Saturday about how the investigation was progressing, but FBI special agent Douglas Korneski said investigators were working on the case on “multiple fronts”.
This effort involves the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit in Quantico, Virginia, along with approximately 250 FBI employees working on site with law enforcement partners.
As the investigation continues, there are no signs of an active human hunt, an indication that investigators are not looking for someone who still poses a danger to the public, several sources in the law told CNN.
“We cannot confirm any individual or person we have identified,” said Korneski, adding “at the moment, we are not prepared to identify any individual”.
Korneski also said that the investigators have no indication that they are looking for another matter. He added that there was no indication of other “explosive threats” and no other explosive devices were discovered during a scan in the area.
Among the questions investigators are trying to answer is whether the AT&T transmission building that suffered the blast damage was the target of the explosion, say the sources.
Asked on Saturday whether the AT&T building was a target, Korneski said, “We are looking into every possible reason.”
The damage is ‘shocking’
The authorities said they were confident that the explosion was “intentional”. Even so, the date of Christmas, the time of the early morning and the unusual warnings given over the loudspeaker before the explosion indicate that it was not a mass murder attempt.
“This was clearly done when no one was around,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said on Friday.
No spectators died from the explosion. However, investigators found tissue that they believe may be human remains near the site of the explosion, said Nashville Metro Police Department chief John Drake.
The explosion hit at least 41 companies on Second Avenue in Nashville, a street full of historic buildings. Concerned about the structural integrity of the affected buildings, the city isolated the area and will not allow anyone to enter until Sunday afternoon.
“It will take some time for Second Avenue to return to normal,” said Cooper.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced on Saturday that he had requested a federal emergency declaration from President Donald Trump after visiting the site that morning.
“The damage is shocking and it is a miracle that no resident has died,” said the governor.
Morning shots before warnings
Several local residents told CNN that they woke to the sound of gunfire on Friday morning. Police said they were called to the scene after a report of shots fired at about 5:30 am.
Once at the scene, the police found a white trailer parked in front of an AT&T broadcast building on 166 Second Ave. North. The RV was repeatedly broadcasting a message warning of an explosion scheduled to occur in 15 minutes, police said.
“This vehicle will explode in 15 minutes,” said the voice, according to Betsy Williams, who was staying in an apartment on Second Avenue. After repeating that message for a minute, the voice then said that the vehicle would explode in 14 minutes, and continued the countdown from there.
Six uniformed policemen who heard the message, immediately started knocking on doors and evacuating residents. Mayor Cooper praised them as heroes and said their quick action saved lives.
As the countdown neared its end, the RV’s message changed, according to the surveillance video taken in a building across the street.
“If you can hear this message, evacuate now,” said the voice at around 6:30 am. “If you can hear this message, evacuate now.”
The vehicle then exploded in a flash of bright light.
Three civilians have been hospitalized and are in stable condition, officials said. The force of the explosion knocked down one policeman, police spokesman Don Aaron said, and caused another to be hearing impaired. But no police officers were seriously injured.
Authorities have no information on whether anyone was inside the RV when it exploded. Police also tweeted a photo of the trailer as he entered the area at 1:22 am on Friday.
As the investigation continues, authorities will conduct a thorough search of the area for any trace of physical evidence, according to Andrew McCabe, a CNN analyst and former FBI deputy director. Essential pieces of evidence, however, may be spread over a large scene, given the size of the explosion.
The most important question to be answered at this point is who was behind the explosion, McCabe said.
“We need to know who put this thing there and detonated it,” he said. “It is only after discovering this that you start talking about things like motive or purpose.”
Blocked public area
Williams, the eyewitness, told CNN that he was in his car with his family when the trailer exploded in a fireball.
“Everything, I mean, everything shook. It was an explosion,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Three cars were set on fire. Trees fell. Bricks and glass were everywhere. Another resident said the scene of destruction looked like an apocalyptic film.
AT&T spokesman Jim Greer told CNN that the company’s network hub in the city was damaged in the explosion and service in the Nashville area was affected. AT&T is the parent company of CNN.
On Saturday, the company said the teams were working around the clock to restore disruptions caused by the explosion. The teams at the scene faced challenges, however, including evacuating the building due to an overnight fire.
AT&T announced on Saturday afternoon that it had deployed more than six portable cellular transmitters in Nashville to assist with communications, including for response and restoration teams, and with additional resources on the way. Power from the building’s facilities is being restored through generators.
The street is on the edge of Nashville’s hospitality and tourist district, in a historic part of the city.
Technical experts from the FBI lab and evidence response teams were brought in from across the country to “help prosecute this mass crime scene,” said responsible FBI assistant special agent Matt Foster.
ATF special agent Mickey French said his agency had activated its national response teams and was working alongside the FBI and the Nashville police. The agency has explosives experts, chemists and engineers involved in the evidence recovery process.