SUICIDE BOMBER?
Missing Nashville ‘suspect’ probed
A “person of interest” has been identified in connection with the Nashville Christmas blast — which is now being looked at as a possible suicide bombing.
Human remains recovered at the scene may have belonged to the bomber, CNN and CBS News reported Saturday night, each citing multiple law-enforcement sources.
No arrests or motive had been revealed in the blast, in which a white recreational vehicle loaded with explosives was detonated outside the downtown AT&T building, injuring at least three people.
But investigators converged on a brick duplex in nearby Antioch that was recently owned by 63-year-old electrician Anthony Quinn Warner, according to CBS News. Multiple bags of evidence had been carried out of the house by early evening.
An RV similar to the one that exploded had been parked behind wooden fencing in the property’s yard as recently as two weeks ago.
No one was inside the home on Saturday, according to FBI Special Agent Jackson Pack, who told The Tennessean newspaper that agents entered the home at 2:30 p.m. for a court-approved search.
Meanwhile, tissue samples recovered at the blast site have been determined to be human remains, a Federal Emergency Management Agency said. Officials were working to identify them.
Public records show that last month Warner signed over the deed to the $160,000 property to Michelle Swing, 29, of Los Angeles for $0.00. The quitclaim deed paperwork does not include Swing’s signature, and she told the Daily Mail that she knew nothing about it.
“I didn’t even buy the house — he just deeded it over to me without my knowledge,” she told the Mail. “So this is all very weird to me, that’s about all I can say.”
Federal and local law-enforcement ensured residents Saturday that there were no other known threats against the city.
“Nashville is safe,” Metro Police Chief John Drake announced at an afternoon press conference.
Earlier Saturday, Nashville Mayor John Cooper praised the six quick-acting cops who evacuated buildings in downtown Nashville, putting themselves in danger to save lives early Christmas morning.
“They are heroes. And I am grateful for them and all of Nashville’s first responders,” Cooper said.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified the officers, who range from a rookie to an 11-year veteran, as officers Brenna Hosey, James Luellen, Michael Sipos, Amanda Topping and James Wells, along with Sgt. Timothy Miller.
The investigation and repair efforts will last well past this weekend, officials said.
The scene is like “a giant jigsaw puzzle created by a bomb that throws pieces of evidence across multiple city blocks,” Donald Cochran, US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said at the press conference.
More than 40 restaurants, bars and shops in the heart of Nashville’s honky-tonk tourism district suffered some damage in the blast.
Damage to the AT&T building, which was packed with telephonenetwork equipment, resulted in service disruptions spanning Nashville, Louisville, Knoxville, Birmingham and Atlanta, officials said.
FBI and ATF explosives experts were set to spend the weekend carefully sifting through the wreckage for clues, starting from the blast perimeter and working their way inward toward where the now-obliterated RV had been parked.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee requested emergency aid from the White House, citing in a tweet the “severity and magnitude of the current situation.”
“The damage is shocking and it is a miracle that no residents were killed,” he said.