Retired Milwaukee assistant police chief survives explosion
Retired Milwaukee Assistant Police Chief Raymond Banks didn’t hear the music or the warnings to evacuate emanating from an RV parked on the same street as his Nashville hotel room Christmas Day.
He learned of its presence when it exploded.
The force threw him out of bed and knocked the television from the wall of the loft-style hotel room where he was staying with his wife, Juanita, and son, Dominique, 34.
His immediate thought was that the ceiling had collapsed on Dominique.
“I can still hear that sound in my head, and I still have that sickening feeling when I thought something happened to my son,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from Nashville, Tennessee, Sunday evening.
CBS58 first reported Banks’ presence close to the bombing.
Banks thinks the lack of windows in the family’s unit is likely what saved them from being killed or seriously injured in the blast that caused destruction in the blocks surrounding the RV.
Officials say Anthony Quinn Warner, the 63-year-old man who has been identified as the bomber, died in the explosion.
Banks thought first responders evacuating buildings before the blast perhaps didn’t know his family was in the hotel or couldn’t access it because it required a smartphone application to enter and did not have a front desk.
As the fire alarm went off, the family got dressed and put on their coats before emerging onto a street that looked like a war zone with vehicles in flames, Banks said.
They ultimately made it to another hotel that rented them a room at halfprice, he said.
As of Sunday evening, they were not able to retrieve the rest of their belongings from their original hotel or get to their vehicle in a nearby parking structure, Banks said.
It’s been a far cry from the vacation the family had been looking forward to. They had rented the hotel with a kitchen to cook in and remain distanced from others while getting a change of scenery after so many months inside at home in Milwaukee, Banks said.
Even so, Banks said, he’s looking at this as the greatest Christmas the family has experienced because they survived unscathed.
“I’m not even angry because I’m just so grateful,” he said.