A former U.S. military intelligence official says the modus operandi of the Nashville Christmas Day bombing was both chilling and atypical.
The bizarre Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville, Tennessee (Nashville), triggered a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and law enforcement agencies. Authorities held a press conference on Sunday (Dec. 27) to say that the suspect behind the bombing has been identified as Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, who died in the explosion.
Steven Rogers, a former U.S. military intelligence officer and veteran military expert, told NT Radio, “In my 38 years in law enforcement, I’ve never seen anything like this, where a person who wants to bomb an area, but informs potential victims to leave the place.” He added, “So obviously, this man didn’t want to kill anyone, and he did. He wanted to minimize the loss of human life.”
In the early morning hours of Dec. 25, suspect Warner parked a Recreational Vehicle (RV) outside the AT&T facility in downtown Nashville and then began broadcasting a warning of an impending explosion, which gave police officers responding to the shooting call time to evacuate some of the people in the area. The explosion caused severe damage to nearby buildings, but no one was killed and few injuries were reported, except for Warner.
Rogers said people called 911 to get police to the neighborhood “to get more police into that area, obviously not to kill them, but to get them to evacuate people from that area.”
The bomb exploded at 6:29 a.m., severely damaging the AT&T building and affecting about 40 other buildings. The bombing also triggered power outages in parts of Tennessee and nearby states.
Rogers said the bomber’s motive is a key question in the whole incident. “Why commit such a brutal act? Why blow up half the city?” He said, “There’s more to (the case) than what we’ve been told. And there may be more than what law enforcement knows at this point.”
“There are a lot of unanswered questions here, but we do know that this person was able to build a bomb that was powerful enough, acquire enough equipment to cause all this destruction. It’s very, very chilling.” Rogers added.
Warner lived with his father, according to public records. Warner’s father, now deceased, worked for BellSouth, which was acquired by AT&T in 2006.
Officials named Warner as a suspect Sunday, saying he was present when the bomb exploded and died in the blast. They cited DNA and other evidence collected at the scene.
FBI official Doug Korneski told the media that officials do not believe anyone else was involved and that they are still working to identify the suspect’s motive for the crime.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper has said repeatedly that the bombing appears to have targeted a building owned by AT&T, which did not respond to requests for comment. “If you live in Nashville, you have to think about some of the connections (in the case).” Cooper said in an interview with CNN on Monday (Dec. 28), “Why would you drive to Antioch to Second Avenue and park next to an AT&T facility?”
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