2020 Nashville bombing — BrandWiki

2020 Nashville bombing

title	2020 Nashville bombing
location	166 Second Avenue North Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
coordinates	36.16389°N, -86.77639°W
date	December 25, 2020
time	6:30 am CST (12:30UTC)
target	Unknown
weapon	Car bomb
fatalities	1 (the perpetrator)‡R1R‡
injuries	8
type	Suicide bombing
perpetrator	Anthony Quinn Warner‡R1R‡
motive	Suicide driven by life stressors (suspected)‡R2R‡

On December 25, 2020, Anthony Quinn Warner detonated a recreational vehicle (RV) bomb in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States, killing himself and injuring eight others, damaging dozens of buildings in the surrounding area.[3][4] The incident took place at 166 Second Avenue North between Church Street and Commerce Street at 6:30 am, adjacent to an AT&T network facility, resulting in days-long communication service outages.

People near the RV heard gunshots, and loudspeakers on the RV warned those in the area to evacuate before the bombing, which was felt miles away.[5][6][7] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined that Warner, a Nashville resident, was the bomber and acted alone.[1]

Damage and service outages

One video posted to social media appeared to show debris from the bombing landing on a building about two blocks away from the initial location.[23] At least three vehicles burned after the bombing,[5] at least 41 businesses were damaged, and one building across the street from the site of the bombing collapsed.[5][10] Structural engineers deemed some of the buildings in the area to be safe by December 29.[24] The bombing caused structural and infrastructure damage to a nearby AT&T service facility, which contained a telephone exchange with network equipment in it, resulting in AT&T service outages across the U.S., primarily in Middle Tennessee. Although the facility's backup generators were rendered nonfunctional because of fire and water damage, communication services initially remained uninterrupted as the facility continued to run on battery power.[25] But outages were reported hours after the explosion, with significant service disruptions in the area by noon. Cellular, wireline telephone, internet, and U-verse television services were affected, as were multiple local 911 and non-emergency phone networks in the region, along with Nashville's COVID-19 community hotline and some hospital systems.[4][26][27] T-Mobile also reported interruptions to its service.[28] The Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center experienced communication issues, leading the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground flights from Nashville International Airport for about an hour.[29][30]

Outages continued to affect communication services, including Internet, phone, and 911 service, for days after the bombing.[31][32] Some stores reported switching to a cash-only policy because credit card systems were out of service, and issues with ATMs were reported.[33][34] AT&T mentioned deploying two mobile cell sites downtown by the next morning, with additional ones deployed throughout Nashville by evening, but gave no specific timeline for full restoration of service, adding that a fire that reignited during the night led to an evacuation of the building.[32][33] Officials later said a full service restoration could take days.[35]

Perpetrator

Authorities concluded that 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner, a longtime Nashville resident,[46][47] was the bomber, that his remains were found in the wreckage, and that there was no indication anyone else was involved.[1][48][49]

Warner was raised in Nashville's Antioch neighborhood and graduated from Antioch High School in the mid-1970s.[48] His father, Charles Bernard Warner, had been a BellSouth employee in Nashville, which merged with AT&T in 2006.[50] Anthony Warner worked in a series of information technology jobs,[48] including as an independent computer technician contracted with a real estate firm, and had owned a company licensed to produce burglar alarms from 1993 to 1998.[20][49] He served two years' probation for felony marijuana possession in 1978 but had no other arrests or criminal record.[48][42] Late in his life, Warner was involved in a family dispute that went to court after he transferred ownership of a family home to himself directly before his brother Steve's death in 2018; the case was dismissed in 2019.[40]

In the weeks before the bombing, Warner quit his job, gave away his car, and executed a quitclaim deed transferring his Nashville duplex home to a Los Angeles woman for $0.[9][48] He had previously executed a quitclaim deed for a different Nashville house in 2019, transferring his interest in the home to the same woman.[51] Reportedly, Warner had told the woman to whom he gave his car that he had cancer, but it is not known whether that was true. A neighbor said that just before Christmas, Warner had said, "Nashville and the world is never going to forget me."[52] Credit card and receipt records examined by investigators showed that Warner had purchased components that could be used to make bombs.[43][53]

Authorities initially said that Warner had not attracted the attention of police before the bombing,[1][54] but it was later revealed that Warner's friend Pamela Perry and her attorney had met with police on 2019.08.21. Perry said that Warner had been making bombs in the RV, and her attorney, who previously represented Warner, said he believed her.[55][56][57][58] Police were unable to make contact with Warner; did not enter Warner's home, yard, or RV; and closed the case as unfounded after an officer observing the home for a few days reported no evidence of bomb-making.[57][59]

Search for motives

Investigators searched Warner's home in Nashville after the bombing[4] and seized several items, including a computer and a portable storage device.[53] Google Street View images of his address appeared to show an RV similar to the one used in the bombing.[63][64] Neighbors of the property told WKRN-TV news that they recognized the RV in the image released by police, saying that it had sat unused for years until Warner began giving it renewed attention about a month before the bombing and that it had disappeared from the property days before the bombing.[65] Neighbors called him reclusive[49]

Aftermath

Response

The Nashville Fire Department evacuated the downtown riverfront,[70][71] and Mayor Cooper issued a curfew for the affected area, which was lifted by December 28.[1] The FAA issued a notice declaring a circular area with a radius of 1 nmi, centered around the site of the bombing, as "National Defense Airspace", effective that afternoon and lasting five days.[72] The bombing adversely affected many small business owners in the area, who were already dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and the aftermath of a tornado that passed through the city in March 2020.[73]

Debate over "terrorism" as a term

The bombing revived a debate in the U.S. about which acts are labeled as terrorism and why.[74] Former national security prosecutor Alex Little and Nashville city councilor Bob Mendes said the bombing fit the definition of domestic terrorism. Federal investigators avoided using the term in the days after the bombing, with Special Agent in Charge Doug Korneski saying they had not yet established whether Warner had used violence to promote political or social beliefs.[75]

Addressing the terrorism classification debate, a USA Today December 2020 op-ed by Max Abrahms and Joseph Mroszczyk said the bombing had an unprecedented combination of features, each of which could be found in different modern attacks labeled as "terrorist": the intentional minimization of casualties as exhibited by "left-wing groups... targeting... property instead of humans", the perpetrator's suicide as a method "uncommonly employed... by those like Warner who are trying to minimize human suffering", no clear motive or manifesto, and the use of a car bomb, as seen in Islamic terrorist attacks. The Nashville bombing was unique in that it combined all these traits, which the authors said was without precedent.[76] National security expert Erroll Southers told local news outlet

Subsequent suspicious vehicles

On the same day as the bombing, police in Cincinnati, Ohio, shut down streets downtown for a few hours while investigating an RV that appeared to have its engine running outside a federal building, citing the Nashville incident as a reason for the high level of caution. The RV turned out to have a generator mounted to it in operation, which produced a sound reminiscent of a running engine.[78][79]

On December 27, a section of U.S. Highway 231 in nearby Wilson County, Tennessee, was shut down because a box truck was playing audio "similar to what was heard" before the bombing. The truck was traveling north from the Walterhill community in Rutherford County along Highway 231 when it was pulled over. The Rutherford County Sheriff's Department arrested the driver and no explosives were found.[80] He was charged with two felony counts of filing a false report and one of tampering with evidence, and held on $500,000 bond.[81]

Affected residents and businesses

Over 60 different buildings, including both commercial and residential properties, were affected by the blast.[83] Over 1,000 people were left jobless, and over 400 local residents were displaced from their homes.[84] Over a third of all directly affected buildings remained temporarily or permanently closed a year later.[85] Of those that were shuttered, several cited hardship from both the blast and the COVID-19 pandemic as factors. Among those closed were the George Jones Museum and Bar,[86] The Old Spaghetti Factory, a Hooters,[87] and a franchise of The Melting Pot