Harrowing images taken on Monday show the aftermath of the Christmas Day explosion in downtown Nashville as investigators reveal the suspected bomber purchased explosive chemicals with a credit card before the incident.
Authorities from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were seen processing the area where the explosion occurred.
The teams searched for clues and other evidence that could shine some light on the ongoing investigation.
Officials identified the suspected bomber as Anthony Quinn Warner, who is said to have told his neighbor that ‘the world is never going to forget me’ days before the explosion that injured at least eight people.
Warner left behind clues that suggest he planned the bombing and intended to kill himself, but a clear motive remained elusive.
‘We hope to get an answer. Sometimes, it’s just not possible,’ David Rausch, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said Monday in an interview on NBC’s Today show. ‘The best way to find motive is to talk to the individual. We will not be able to do that in this case.’
Authorities said Warner is believed to have acted alone and used his credit card to purchase chemical precursors and security alarms.
Harrowing images taken on Monday show the aftermath of the Christmas Day explosion in downtown Nashville as investigators search for ‘any and all possible motives’ for the bombing
Authorities from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were seen processing the area where the explosion occurred
The teams are searching for clues and other evidence that could shine some light on the ongoing investigation
Officials identified the suspected bomber as Anthony Quinn Warner, who is said to have told his neighbor that ‘the world is never going to forget me’ days before the explosion that injured at least eight people. Investigators look for evidence at the scene on Monday
Warner left behind clues that suggest he planned the bombing and intended to kill himself, but a clear motive remained elusive
The teams were sifting through debris in search of clues that could shine more light on the investigation
A source close to the investigation told The Sun: ‘The FBI has received information from a bank holding company on an active credit card for Warner. Preliminary searches indicates the purchases of chemical precursors to make explosives and security alarms.
‘Initial results also show nitroglycerin was found on a residue swab taken from a tree trunk at the blast site.’
Authorities also revealed that human remains found at the scene of the explosion match those of the man identified as the bomber.
As investigators continued to search for a motive, body camera video released late Monday by Nashville police offered more insight to the moments leading up to the explosion and its aftermath.
The recording from Officer Michael Sipos’ camera captures officers walking past the RV parked across the street as the recorded warning blares and then helping people evacuate after the thunderous blast off camera.
Car alarms and sirens wailed as a voice on the dispatcher calls for all available personnel and a roll call and people stumble through the downtown area littered with glass.
Investigators are analyzing Warner’s belongings collected during the investigation, including a computer and a portable storage drive, and continue to interview witnesses as they try to identify a motive for the explosion, a law enforcement official said.
A review of his financial transactions also uncovered purchases of potential bomb-making components, the official said.
Warner had recently given away a vehicle and told the person he gave it to that he had been diagnosed with cancer, though it is unclear whether he indeed had cancer, the official said. Investigators used some items collected from the vehicle, including a hat and gloves, to match Warner’s DNA and DNA was taken from one of his family members, the official said.
The official could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
This image shows the moment officers approach Warner’s RV before it exploded on Friday
Investigators released this image which shows the moment the RV exploded on Christmas Day
Christmas Day bomber Anthony Quinn Warner (pictured) claimed to have cancer before the attack
It was also reported on Monday that Rick Laude recalled how he had a small chat with his neighbor Warner.
He saw Warner standing at his mailbox and pulled over his car to talk. Laude asked Warner how his elderly mother was doing and casually asked: ‘Is Santa going to bring you anything good for Christmas?’
Warner then cracked a smile and said: ‘Oh, yeah, Nashville and the world is never going to forget me.’
At first Laude didn’t think much of the remark saying: ‘Nothing about this guy raised any flags. He was just quiet.’
Then on Friday around 6.40am a white RV rigged with bombs exploded outside the AT&T building on 2nd Avenue in downtown Nashville, destroying over 40 businesses, and Warner was confirmed to have perished in the blast.
On Monday the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Memphis released a new photo of Warner showing him leaning out of what appears to be his white RV.
Investigators said they’re looking into whether Warner had his pet dogs with him in the RV when it detonated.
When asked about if Warner’s dogs perished alongside him in the blast, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said Monday: ‘That, we don’t know yet. That’s still information that we’re trying to determine, all of that detail.’
Warner had several dogs over the years. He was known to own two Shetland sheepdogs and a larger dog he adopted, according to his neighbor of 25 years Steve Schmoldt.
He said Warner ‘took really good care of his dogs.’
Warner even built a wheelchair ramp at his home so the dogs didn’t have to use the stairs, one neighbor said to The Tennessean.
Warner also said in a letter to a Los Angeles woman he gifted his $160,000 house to in November that he ‘intended to travel on Christmas Eve to spend a few weeks in the woods with his dogs.’
Investigators are still trying to piece together a motive for the bomb. Officials say Warner’s mother is cooperating with investigators.
Warner left behind clues that suggest he planned the bombing and intended to kill himself.
‘We hope to get an answer. Sometimes, it’s just not possible,’ David Rausch, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said Monday in an interview on the Today show.
‘The best way to find motive is to talk to the individual. We will not be able to do that in this case.’
However, Rausch said that Warner’s plan seemed more intent on destruction rather than harm as a warning countdown blared on speakers 15 minutes before the blast, allowing police to evacuate people living in the area.
‘It does appear that the intent was more destruction than death,’ he said.
On Monday the FBI in Memphis released this new photo of Warner showing him leaning out of what appears to be his white RV
Warner appeared to target the AT&T transmission building in Nashville (above) in the Friday morning explosion
A Sunday report from the New York Times details preparations Warner made in the weeks prior to his suicide attack, including telling his ex-girlfriend that he had cancer and giving her his car.
However, it is unclear whether he indeed had cancer.
On December 5, he also told a real estate agent that he worked for as a tech consultant that he planned to retire, according to the newspaper.
A month before the bombing, Warner gave away the $160,000 home he lived in to a a 29-year-old, Los Angeles-based woman named Michelle Swing, whose ties to him are unclear, DailyMail.com first reported Saturday.
A property record dated November 25 indicates Warner transferred the home to Swing in exchange for no money after living there for decades. Her signature is not on that document.
Investigators are now analyzing Warner’s belongings collected during the investigation, including a computer and a portable storage drive, and continue to interview witnesses as they try to identify a motive for the explosion, a law enforcement official said.
A review of his financial transactions also uncovered purchases of potential bomb-making components, the official said.
The explosion took place before downtown streets were bustling with activity and was accompanied by a recorded announcement from the RV (pictured) warning anyone nearby that a bomb would soon detonate
Investigators remove items from the basement of Warner’s home in Antioch, Tennessee, on Saturday afternoon. A source close to the investigation said authorities are combing Warner’s digital footprint in their search for a motive
Warner believed 5G cellular technology was killing people, and may have been spurred on in the conspiracy theory by the 2011 death of his father, Charles B. Warner, who worked for telecom BellSouth, which later merged with AT&T. The bomber’s father (above) died in 2011
Investigators used some items collected from the vehicle, including a hat and gloves, to match Warner’s DNA and DNA was taken from one of his family members, the official, who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity, said.
Warner had worked as a computer consultant for Nashville real estate agent Steve Fridrich, who said Warner told him he was retiring earlier this month.
Officials said Warner had not been on their radar before Christmas. A law enforcement report released Monday showed that Warner’s only arrest was for a 1978 marijuana-related charge.
The freelance IT consultant, whom neighbors described as an ‘oddball’, was ‘heavily into conspiracy theories’, a source close to the investigation told DailyMail.com.
Warner believed 5G cellular technology was killing people, and may have been spurred on in the conspiracy theory by the 2011 death of his father, who worked for telecom BellSouth, which later merged with AT&T.
The bombing badly damaged a critical AT&T transmission center, wreaking havoc on phone communications in multiple states that the company is still racing to resolve.
Agents are also investigating whether Quinn’s paranoia over telecommunications began with the death of his father Charles B. Warner in July 2011, aged 78.
A death certificate obtained by DailyMail.com notes that Charles, nicknamed Popeye, died of dementia after spending his career working for BellSouth, a former AT&T subsidiary which re-merged with the company in 2006.
Electronic devices seized from Warner’s former home in Antioch, a suburb of Nashville, have been sent to a digital forensics laboratory to unlock his online activity and find out where he discussed his warped views.
‘We are waiting on the digital footprint that should finally provide us with some answers,’ a source explained.
‘The unofficial motive thus far is the suspect believed 5G was the root of all deaths in the region and he’d be hailed a hero.’
Forensic analysts are also reviewing evidence from the blast site to try to identify the components of the explosives as well as information from the U.S. Bomb Data Center for intelligence and investigative leads, according to a law enforcement official who said investigators were examining Warner’s digital footprint and financial history.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake (left) joins a group of police officers as they embrace after speaking at a news conference Sunday. The officers are part of a group of officers credited with evacuating people before an explosion took place in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning
The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, said federal agents were examining a number of potential leads and pursuing several theories, including the possibility that the AT&T building was targeted.
Korneski said Sunday that officials were were interviewing acquaintances of Warner’s to try to determine what may have motivated him.
The explosion took place before downtown streets were bustling with activity and was accompanied by a recorded announcement warning anyone nearby that a bomb would soon detonate.
The warning blared out at least 15 minutes before the explosion actually happened.
Then, for reasons that may never be known, the audio switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s 1964 hit ‘Downtown’ shortly before the blast.
‘When you look at all the facts at this point, obviously the audio from the vehicle warning people that an explosion was imminent, the opportunity to clear the area, certainly gives you that insight that the possibility was he had no intention of harming anyone but himself,’ Rausch told Today.
Investigators from the Tennessee Highway Patrol were able to link the vehicle identification number recovered from the wreckage to an RV registered to Warner, officials said.
‘We’re still following leads, but right now there is no indication that any other persons were involved. We’ve reviewed hours of security video surrounding the recreation vehicle. We saw no other people involved,’ Korneski said.
Anthony Warner told LA mother, 29, he planned to spend Christmas ‘in the woods with his dogs’ and warned her basement of home he gave her for free was ‘not normal’
Nashville bombing suspect Anthony Quinn Warner allegedly sent a letter to Michelle Swing (above) telling her that he had transferred ownership of his home in Antioch to her last month
Michelle Swing, the woman to whom Warner gifted his $160,000 house in November, insisted to DailyMail.com on Saturday that she had no knowledge of the transfer.
She pointed out that her signature did not appear on the quitclaim deed, saying: ‘In the state of Tennessee you can deed property to someone else without their consent or their signature or anything.
‘I didn’t even buy the house he just deeded it over to me without my knowledge.
‘This all very weird to me, that’s about all I can say.’
But a new report claims that Warner informed Swing of the transfer in a strange letter last month.
‘The attic has plywood and lighting, take a look. The basement is not normal, take a look,’ Warner allegedly wrote in the letter described by The Sun.
He concluded with the words: ‘Woof woof Julio.’
In the letter Warner also shared that he ‘intended to travel on Christmas Eve to spend a few weeks in the woods with his dogs’.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Swing declined to disclose whether she had ever met Warner or if she had any family links to him, saying: ‘I’ve been told to direct everything else to FBI.’
The Sun reported that police believe Warner may have had a relationship with Swing’s mother.
The outlet said Swing told investigators that she last spoke to Warner a week before Thanksgiving and that she had never met him in person.
Warner’s two properties are located just a 15 minute drive from where the bomb exploded
Swing’s signature does not appear on the November 25th transfer and she told DailyMail.com she knew absolutely nothing about it
Swing’s apartment building in Los Angeles is pictured above
Records show Warner also transferred another home on Bakertown Road to Swing via a quitclaim deed in January 2019.
The $250,000 house had previously belonged to Warner’s brother Steven, and Warner had only been in possession of it for five months before giving it to Swing for free. She later also used a quitclaim to give the house to Warner’s mother, Lane.
Swing’s address in the record for the transfer is listed as Lenoir City, Tennessee, a two-hour drive from Nashville.
According to her LinkedIn profile, she studied Marketing and Business and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she remained working until 2012 when she moved to California.
Swing first lived in San Francisco before a move to Los Angeles in October 2018, where she works in artist development for Anschutz Entertainment Group.