# 'Evacuate now. There is a bomb': Witness recalls chilling warning before explosion in Nashville that damaged 20 buildings, injured 3



## PatDM'T (Dec 25, 2020)

Yihyun Jeong, Brinley Hineman, Joshua Bote and Jessica Flores, Nashville Tennessean
Fri, December 25, 2020, 3:07 PM CST·6 min read

NASHVILLE – The FBI was leading an investigation Friday into an explosion that erupted in downtown early Christmas morning, an incident that rattled residents for miles and is being called "intentional" by authorities.

Police were responding to reports of shots fired near Second Avenue and Commerce Street before 6 a.m. when they saw a suspicious RV outside a nearby AT&T building.

Officers alerted the department's bomb squad, which was en route, when a "significant explosion" happened about 30 minutes later, Metro police spokesperson Don Aaron said. The force of the explosion knocked an officer to the ground.

Betsy Williams, the owner of The Melting Pot, a restaurant across the street from the explosion, told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, that guests reported the RV was stationed there since Thursday night.

Williams, who lives in a loft apartment on the third floor of the restaurant building, said she heard the sound of loud, rapid-fire gunshots at about 4:30 a.m. After multiple rounds of gunshot sounds, Williams said she called 911. Then, she said, she heard a repeated warning she said came from the RV parked outside her building.

“Evacuate now. There is a bomb. A bomb is in this vehicle and will explode,” she remembers the recorded warning saying. Then, she said, the voice started a 15-minute countdown.

Her family headed to Nissan Stadium, about a half-mile away and waited. When they didn’t hear an explosion, they headed back. That was when they saw a fireball fly over the AT&T building on Second Avenue.

“Whoever did it did give fair warning,” Williams said.

Three people were hospitalized with injuries, police said. None are in critical condition. At least 20 buildings were damaged, Nashville Mayor John Cooper said. It was unclear whether anyone was inside the RV when it exploded.

Nashville Metro Police were going door-to-door with canines in the downtown areas to search nearby buildings and automobiles, though there is no indication of any additional devices.

Several people were taken to the department's central precinct for questioning, but authorities declined to give more details Friday morning.

The FBI is taking the lead in the investigation, spokesman Joel Siskovic said, and will be working in conjunction with state and local authorities. Federal investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were also in Nashville late Friday morning.






Smoke rises from downtown after an explosion in the area of Second and Commerce Friday, Dec. 25, 2020 in Nashville, Tenn.


Link to the whole article here.


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Dec 25, 2020)

Thank God no one was killed. I’m wondering if someone will take  credit for this. It seems like they wanted to do damage, not take lives. Like they wanted to make a statement.


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## PatDM'T (Dec 25, 2020)




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## Black Ambrosia (Dec 25, 2020)

Leeda.the.Paladin said:


> Thank God no one was killed. I’m wondering if someone will take  credit for this. It seems like they wanted to do damage, not take lives. Like they wanted to make a statement.


I heard human remains were found nearby but I haven't heard any details. Not sure if this is due to the explosion or something else.


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## lavaflow99 (Dec 25, 2020)

Leeda.the.Paladin said:


> Thank God no one was killed. I’m wondering if someone will take  credit for this. It seems like they wanted to do damage, not take lives. Like they wanted to make a statement.


For now.  I fear this may be just a warning and something bigger is coming.


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## dancinstallion (Dec 25, 2020)

This is scary, just think if they didnt warn people first to evacuate. Were the gunshots real or was that to get people's attention and to wake them up so they can evacuate.


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## HappyAtLast (Dec 25, 2020)

lavaflow99 said:


> For now.  I fear this may be just a warning and something bigger is coming.


I told DH that maybe I've been watching too many movies, but that sure seemed like just a distraction.


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## Evolving78 (Dec 26, 2020)

HappyAtLast said:


> I told DH that maybe I've been watching too many movies, but that sure seemed like just a distraction.


I’m thinking insurance scams. There has been too many fires around the country recently.


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## Ivonnovi (Dec 26, 2020)

I honestly believe this was a redneck action to try to start a race-war; or to increase religious tensions.  


Christmas Day?
The Class C did not look like your average rental RV (highly traceable).
There are resources to rent private owned RVs; if so give it a week to turn up.
....Could be a very old RV no long titled/licensed.....driven there with a "Tag Applied For Tag"?  = will take longer to trace
From my _Experience_  I know the intent of "Terrorism" is to instill "Terror";  though I am appreciative, I know the usual organized terrorist groups don't give warnings.   IJS
Probably stood on the sidelines talknbout "hold my  dis gon B gud!"


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## dancinstallion (Dec 26, 2020)

Ivonnovi said:


> I honestly believe this was a redneck action to try to start a race-war; or to increase religious tensions.
> 
> 
> Christmas Day?
> ...



That's what dh said. He said a trump supporter did this.


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## Black Ambrosia (Dec 26, 2020)

dancinstallion said:


> That's what dh said. He said a trump supporter did this.


I don’t think a trump supporter would’ve warned anyone but i thought about it possibly being related to the lights out plot when I heard there was damage to a AT&T tech building. Not the same as the power grid but it has the potential to hamper communication.


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## chocolat79 (Dec 26, 2020)

dancinstallion said:


> That's what dh said. He said a trump supporter did this.


My husband said the same


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## mensa (Dec 27, 2020)

dancinstallion said:


> That's what dh said. He said a trump supporter did this.


My husband said the same thing.


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## mensa (Dec 27, 2020)

The bomber has been identified as a white male.

Let's see, he did it because he had mental issues, was depressed, his classmates teased him in his kindergarten class, etc...


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## lavaflow99 (Dec 27, 2020)

mensa said:


> The bomber has been identified as a white male.
> 
> Let's see, he did it because he had mental issues, was depressed, his classmates teased him in his kindergarten class, etc...


So a homegrown white American suicide bomber.  Got it.
Al Qaeda can't be blamed for this one


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## mensa (Dec 27, 2020)

lavaflow99 said:


> So a homegrown white American suicide bomber.  Got it.
> Al Qaeda can't be blamed for this one


The authorities said that they don't want to label him as a terrorist until they examine his thinking.


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## lavaflow99 (Dec 27, 2020)

mensa said:


> The authorities said that they don't want to label him as a terrorist until they examine his thinking.








Oh so when a BM is holding a Subway sandwich and asking questions why they are being apprehended and police officers are shooting them because said police officers are saying they are a threat to humanity, said police officers didn't examine the thinking of said black man with Subway sandwich in hand.

Garbage.


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## CurlyNiquee (Dec 28, 2020)




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## Black Ambrosia (Dec 28, 2020)

I sometimes forget how crazy they are. This is a reminder.


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## Black Ambrosia (Dec 28, 2020)

Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner reportedly thought he’d be ‘hailed a hero’
					

Nashville RV bomber Anthony Quinn Warner was “heavily into conspiracy theories” about 5G networks — and thought he’d be “hailed a hero” for targeting a huge AT&a…




					nypost.com
				




*Nashville RV bomber Anthony Quinn Warner was “heavily into conspiracy theories” about 5G networks — and thought he’d be “hailed a hero” for targeting a huge AT&T network, according to a report.

The 63-year-old loner — who died in his massive Christmas Day suicide blast — may have turned against the telecommunications industry after the 2011 death of his father, who worked for a company that later merged with AT&T, a source close to the investigation told the Daily Mail.
*
He was believed to be “heavily into conspiracy theories,” especially over fears that 5G networks were killing people, the source said.

*“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,” the source told the outlet.*

“We are waiting on the digital footprint that should finally provide us with some answers,” the source explained following a raid of Warner’s home in Antioch, a suburb of Nashville.

*His father, Charles B. Warner, spent his career working for BellSouth, which was acquired by AT&T in 2006, the report noted. The dad — who was nicknamed Popeye — died in July 2011 of dementia, at age 78, the outlet said.

The bomber may also have been dying before his attack, having told an ex-girlfriend that he had cancer, according to the New York Times.*

He gave that ex a car and also signed away the deeds to at least two homes — one just before Thanksgiving — before his devastating attack.

As well as razing businesses in the historic downtown area, the 6:30 a.m. blast caused a massive disruption to communications systems that even blacked out 911 centers in several surrounding counties.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said Sunday the bombing appeared to be an “infrastructure attack” targeting the AT&T building.

An image grab made from footage of a security camera and released by Nashville police shows the moment a bomb was set off in Nashville on Christmas morning.Metro Nashville PD

“To all of us locally, it feels like there has to be some connection with the AT&T facility and the site of the bombing,” Cooper told CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” 

“It’s got to have something to do with the infrastructure,” he said.

*Experts also warn that the attack showed clear vulnerabilities in America’s telecommunications industry.

“I think this is a wake-up call and a warning for all of us about how vulnerable our infrastructure is, how relatively easy it is for a single individual to do this,” Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director of counterintelligence at the FBI, told “Face The Nation.”*


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## yamilee21 (Dec 29, 2020)

Black Ambrosia said:


> I sometimes forget how crazy they are. This is a reminder.


I have to say, I did raise an eyebrow at the name, precisely because it seemed that it would be symbolic for the QAnon kooks. But, uh, “escape goat?”  
ETA: I missed “blue up” ... the writing errors are so consistently terrible with these “people;” so many of these kinds of messages read like bots programmed by teenage boys in Eastern Europe. They have been exposed so often that it is hard to imagine that others do not instantly recognize the writing patterns. 

I hate, hate, hate the way the media twists themselves into pretzels to always avoid calling these criminals terrorists, when they are so quick to throw labels on anyone who is not white/white-adjacent.


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## Kanky (Jan 4, 2021)

So 3g was ok and 4g was cool but 5g is just too many Gs so they want to blow stuff up?


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## CarefreeinChicago (Jan 4, 2021)

America needs better mental health resources


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