Tips in Nashville blast lead agents to suburbs
Property scoured where RV was spotted
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Federal agents converged Saturday on the home of a possible person of interest in the explosion that rocked downtown Nashville as investigators scoured hundreds of tips and leads in the blast that damaged dozens of buildings on Christmas morning.
More than 24 hours after the explosion, a motive remained elusive as investigators worked round the clock to resolve unanswered questions about a recreational vehicle that blew up on a mostly deserted street on a sleepy holiday morning and was prefaced by a recorded warning advising those nearby to evacuate. The attack, which damaged an AT&T building, continued to wreak havoc Saturday on cellphone service and police and hospital communications in several Southern states.
Investigators from a number of federal and local law enforcement agencies were at a home in Antioch in suburban Nashville — about 10 miles southeast of the blast site — after receiving information relevant to the in
vestigation, said FBI special agent Jason Pack. Another law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators regard a person associated with the property as a person of interest.
Federal agents could be seen looking around the property, searching the home and the backyard. A Google Maps image had shown a similar recreational vehicle parked in the backyard when the photo was captured in May 2019; an AP reporter at the scene did not see the vehicle at the property in the late afternoon Saturday.
Tony Rodriguez lives in the second home of the duplex that authorities searched. He said investigators removed a computer motherboard from his neighbor’s home, among other things.
Rodriguez said he never spoke to his neighbor and didn’t know his name. The few times Rodriguez saw the man, he was tinkering with an antenna above the house and power-washing the driveway behind their home. Rodriguez said the neighbor kept several “No Trespassing” and warning signs around his property, particularly where he kept the RV.
“He always seemed like an oddball,” Rodriguez said.
In an afternoon news conference in Nashville, FBI special agent Douglas Korneski said there was “activity going on” in the Antioch area but that he “can’t confirm any individuals or anybody we’ve identified.”
There were other signs of progress in the investigation, as the FBI revealed that it was looking at a number of people who may be connected to it. Officials also said no additional explosive devices have been found — indicating no active threat. Investigators have received about 500 tips and leads.
“It’s just going to take us some time,” Korneski said. “Our investigative team is turning over every stone” to understand who did this and why.
HUMAN REMAINS
Separately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a report Saturday that tissue samples found at the scene were determined to be human remains. Officials said they were working vigorously to identify the person.
One theory investigators are pursuing is that the man living at the Antioch address blew himself up in the RV, according to two people familiar with the matter, who cautioned that no conclusions have been reached.
Beyond that, the only known casualties were three injured people. The infrastructure damage, meanwhile, was broadly felt because an AT&T central office was affected by the blast. Police emergency systems in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, as well as Nashville’s pandemic community hotline and a handful of hospital systems, remained out of service.
The building contained a telephone exchange, with network equipment in it — but the company has declined to say exactly how many people have been affected.
Asked whether the AT&T building could have been a possible target, Korneski said, “We’re looking at every possible motive that could be involved.”
Investigators shut down the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene — an area packed with honky-tonks, restaurants and shops — as they shuffled through broken glass and damaged buildings to learn more about the explosion.
Mayor John Cooper has enforced a curfew in the downtown area until today, issuing an executive order to limit public access to the area. More than 40 buildings were affected.
AT&T said restoration efforts are facing several challenges, which include a fire that “reignited overnight and led to the evacuation of the building.” This has forced AT&T teams to work with safety and structural engineers and drilling access holes into the building to reconnect power.
“Our teams continue to work around the clock on recovery efforts from yesterday morning’s explosion in Nashville,” the company said in a Saturday statement. “We have two portable cell sites operating in downtown Nashville with numerous additional portable sites being deployed in the Nashville area and in the region.”
Ray Neville, president of technology at T-Mobile, said on Twitter that service disruptions affected Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham and Atlanta. “We continue to see service interruptions in these areas following yesterday’s explosion. Restoration efforts continue around the clock & we will keep you updated on progress,” he said Saturday.
The outages had even briefly grounded flights at Nashville International Airport, but service was continuing normally Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration has since issued a temporary flight restriction around the airport, requiring pilots to follow strict procedures until Wednesday.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said officers responded Friday to a report of gunfire when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. Police evacuated nearby buildings and called in the bomb squad. The RV exploded shortly afterward.
The department released a photo of the RV, which they said had arrived on the street at 1:22 a.m. Friday.
DOWNTOWN DAMAGE
The incident — which officials described as an “intentional act” and “deliberate bomb” — left dozens of buildings mangled and sent three people to the hospital with what police said were noncritical injuries.
Officials said Saturday that the city was safe and there were no known threats, but the area remained sealed off and under curfew over the weekend as investigators combed through the wreckage.
“It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle created by a bomb that throws evidence over multiple city blocks,” U.S. Attorney Donald Cochran said. “They’ve got to gather it, they’ve got to catalog it, they’ve got to put it back together and find out what the picture of that puzzle looks like.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee asked President Donald Trump for federal assistance in response to the explosion, saying the damage to businesses and the disruptions in internet and cell service caused by the blast were too severe for the state to handle alone.
The Republican governor said he spent part of the morning touring the destruction. “The damage is shocking and it is a miracle that no residents were killed,” Lee wrote in a tweet.
In a letter to Trump, Lee referred to the incident as an “attack” carried out with a “vehicle-born improvised explosive device” and called on the president to issue an emergency disaster declaration, unlocking financial and physical assistance from the federal government.
The governor estimated that the state had spent at least $175 million responding to other disasters since early 2019 and said federal help was essential.
“These extraordinary state and local expenditures have reduced our capacity to recover from this current event,” Lee wrote. “Given these factors, the severity and magnitude of the current situation is such that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments.”
The White House has not publicly responded to Lee’s request. Trump was briefed on the situation and is monitoring developments, a spokesperson said Friday.
Mayor Cooper said that at least 41 businesses were damaged and “there will be others as we see the full extent of this.” He said the city would focus on rebuilding but cautioned that it “will be some time before Second Avenue is back to normal.”
In his letter to Trump, Lee noted that many of the buildings rocked by the blast were historic and needed to be assessed by an engineer to make sure they are structurally sound.
As business owners and residents started to take stock of the damage Saturday, a city nonemergency number for people in the affected area remained out of service.
“We are aware property owners/residents are experiencing difficulties, and are working to resolve them as soon as possible,” Cooper tweeted. “Please know the explosion impact area is still a federal investigation zone.”
Information for this article was contributed by Kimberlee Kruesi, Michael Balsamo, Eric Tucker, Mark Humphrey and John Raby of The Associated Press; and by Derek Hawkins, Michael Kranish, Simone Sebastian, Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post.