NASHVILLE – Authorities know that an ominous warning of an imminent explosion accompanied by a popular '60s song preceded the Christmas morning blast that tore through a section of the city's historic downtown.
What they don't know yet is who did it. Or why.
On Sunday, police officers who had responded to a report of shots fired moments before the blast recalled the chaos when a recreational vehicle blew up on historic Second Avenue, injuring three people and damaging more than 40 businesses.
Officer James Wells, who suffered some hearing loss, tearfully said at a news conference that believed he heard God tell him to walk away as he saw a flash of orange and heard a loud boom.
“As I’m stumbling around, I just tell myself to stay on my feet and to stay alive,” Wells said. “Christmas will never be the same.”
The explosion was a deliberate bombing and "feels like" it had a connection to the AT&T building severely damaged in the blast, Mayor John Cooper said Sunday.
Cooper cited "a lot of momentum behind the investigation" and said he expects "a lot of questions to be answered relatively soon." But no motive for the attack had been determined.
"There has to be some connection to the AT&T facility and the site of the bombing," Cooper told CBS' "Face the Nation."
Nashville Police Chief John Drake confirmed that Anthony Q. Warner, 63, is a person of interest in the case. FBI agents have searched a home in Antioch and visited a real estate office in Nashville in connection with the bombing. An FBI spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, that Warner lives at the home.
500 tips come in: FBI investigates Christmas Day explosion in Nashville
Neighbors told The Tennessean that an RV similar to the one in the explosion was parked at the home within the last two weeks.
FBI Special Agent Jason Pack said agents also visited Fridrich & Clark Realty's Green Hills office. Owner Steve Fridrich said the company reported to the FBI that Warner had previously worked for the company.
“We are one of the nearly 500 people who so far have contacted them with tips," Fridrich said.
Warner is a longtime area resident who held several IT jobs throughout his life, including one as an independent computer technician with Fridrich & Clark, and public records show he had extensive experience with electronics and alarm systems. Warner has also been embroiled in legal battles over real estate with family members in recent years.
Steve Schmoldt and his wife have lived next to Warner for more than two decades. Schmoldt described his neighbor as friendly, someone with whom he would make brief small talk. They never discussed politics or religion, and Warner never gave any indication of any closely held ideology, Schmoldt said.
“I can tell you as far as politics, he never had any yard signs or flags in his window or anything like that," Schmoldt said. "If he did have any political beliefs he kept, that was something he kept to himself."
Anthony Quinn Warner: Person of interest was longtime resident with electronics expertise
Nashville police responded to a report of shots fired just before 6 a.m. on Friday, discovering a suspicious RV parked outside the AT&T building. Officers and witnesses heard a broadcast coming from the RV giving a dire warning: “Evacuate now. There is a bomb. A bomb is in this vehicle and will explode."
Adding to the bizarre sequence of events: Amid the evacuation efforts, Officer James Luellen said he heard a song playing from the RV. An ATF agent identified it as "Downtown" by Petula Clark, a chart-topping megahit. In 1965.
The lyrics, about going to the city to seek refuge from sadness, echoed down Second Avenue just before the blast: "The lights are much brighter there."
‘Downtown’: Petula Clark song played from RV before Nashville bomb went off
No fatalities have been confirmed, but authorities said they were working to determine the identity of tissue samples determined to be human remains found at the scene. Damage to the AT&T building was so severe that police emergency systems in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama remained out of service all day.
AT&T said the outage continued to affect 911 operations and residential service Sunday, though the company said coverage was improving. The building sustained "significant damage" from the blast, AT&T reported in a statement, including to elevators, beams and the building's facade.
The destruction spread across several blocks, and evidence is strewn amid the rubble and shattered glass. U.S. Attorney Don Cochran said the expansive debris field presented a challenge to bomb technicians, a “giant jigsaw puzzle created by a bomb that throws pieces of evidence across multiple city blocks."
More than 500 citizen tips were driving the investigation, and more than 250 FBI agents and staff were collaborating on the case, Cochran said.
Authorities gave few details about the person of interest, the ongoing search in Antioch or the ongoing analysis of the sprawling Second Avenue crime scene. There were no manhunts or announcements about a suspect. Cooper and Drake urged residents to stay away from downtown while the investigation continues.
"I’m very thankful for the quick thinking and courageous actions of our brave police officers who saved many lives," Cooper said. "To all of Nashville’s first responders, thank you for your service that day and every day."
Contributing: Yihyun Jeong, Brinley Hineman, Natalie Allison and Adam Tamburin, Nashville Tennessean
