2020 Nashville bombing

On December 25, 2020, a suicide bomber detonated a recreational vehicle (RV) bomb in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States, injuring eight people and damaging dozens of buildings. It took place at 166 Second Avenue North between Church Street and Commerce Street at 6:30 am, adjacent to an AT&T network hub, resulting in days-long communication service outages. People near the RV heard gunshots, and loudspeakers on the RV warned them to evacuate before the explosion, which was felt miles away. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined the bomber was 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner, a Nashville resident believed to have acted alone. Bombing: The explosion was caused by a car bomb carried in a Thor Motor Coach Chateau RV parked outside an AT&T transmission building on Second Avenue North in downtown Nashville at 1:22 am on December 25, 2020. Four to five hours after the RV arrived, people nearby were awakened by the sound of rapid gunfire in at least three bursts, followed by a computerized female voice broadcasting over a public address system: "All buildings in this area must be evacuated now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now." "Stay clear of this vehicle", "Do not approach this vehicle", and "Your primary objective is to evacuate these buildings now" were also among the messages broadcast. The broadcast warned that there was a bomb in the vehicle, a 15-minute countdown elapsed, and the speakers switched to snippets from the 1964 song "Downtown" by Petula Clark. Responding to reports of shots being fired at around 5:30 am, two police officers arrived at the area. Though they did not hear any shots, they discovered the parked vehicle and heard the warning. They and three other responding officers subsequently evacuated homes in the area and called in reinforcements, including the hazardous devices unit, while a sixth officer stayed on the street to redirect pedestrians. Two of the officers investigated the RV at one point and observed a camera positioned above its rearview mirror. The vehicle exploded at 6:30 am, while the bomb squad was on its way to the area. Eight people were treated at hospitals for injuries and later discharged. Three of them sustained non-critical injuries, including two of the officers who had been evacuating residents. The bomber died at the scene, while no other fatalities were reported. Damage and service outages: One video posted to social media appears to show debris from the explosion landing on a building about two blocks away from the initial location. At least three vehicles burned after the bombing, at least 41 businesses were damaged, and one building located across from the site of the bombing collapsed. Structural engineers deemed some of the buildings in the area to be safe on December 29, but the determination of whether people could access other buildings is expected to take several more days. The bombing caused infrastructural 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 due to fire and water damage, communication services initially remained uninterrupted while the facility was able to run on battery power. However, outages were reported hours after the explosion, with significant service disruptions in the area by around noon. Cellular, wireline telephone, internet, and U-verse television service were affected, as were multiple local 9-1-1 and non-emergency phone networks in the region, along with Nashville's COVID-19 community hotline and some hospital systems. T-Mobile also reported interruptions to its service. The Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center also experienced communication issues, leading the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ground flights from Nashville International Airport for about an hour. Outages continued to affect communication services, including Internet, phone, and 9-1-1 services, for days after the bombing. Some stores reported switching to a cash-only policy due to credit card systems being out of service, while issues with ATMs have also been reported. AT&T mentioned deploying two mobile cell sites downtown by the next morning, with additional ones deployed throughout Nashville by evening, but it gave no specific timeline in regard to a full restoration of service, adding that a fire that reignited during the night led to an evacuation of the building. Officials later said a full service restoration could take days. Investigation: After the bombing, a bomb squad, along with police and federal investigators, arrived at the site to gather evidence and determine what type of explosive was used in the blast. Authorities swept the area and did not find any additional explosives. Investigators found shell casings in the area but believed they were remnants of unfired ammunition that was destroyed in the explosion. No evidence was found confirming gunshots were fired in the area despite the initial 9-1-1 calls. Human remains were also found near the site of the explosion. The remains were later matched to Anthony Quinn Warner through a DNA match using gloves and a hat retrieved from a car he owned; a 17-digit vehicle identification number (VIN) reconstructed from the remains of the RV was also linked to Warner Investigators determined the act was a suicide bombing, and the mayor called it an attack on infrastructure. Hours of surveillance camera footage indicated that nobody other than Warner was involved. Warner's friends and family cooperated with investigators. The FBI field office in Memphis is leading the investigation, which also involved the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and local law enforcement agencies. More than 250 FBI personnel from at least seven field offices were involved. A reward for any information about the bombing was announced shortly into the investigation. More than 500 tips and leads were received. Perpetrator: Authorities concluded that 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner (January 17, 1957 – December 25, 2020), a longtime resident of Nashville, was the bomber, that his remains were found in the wreckage, and that there was no indication anyone else was involved. The FBI is probing Warner's motive. Warner was raised in Nashville's Antioch neighborhood and graduated from Antioch High School in the mid-1970s. He worked in a series of information technology jobs, including as an independent computer technician contracted with a real estate firm, and he had also owned a company licensed to produce burglar alarms from 1993 to 1998. He served two years' probation for felony marijuana possession in 1978, but had no other arrests or criminal record. Late in his life, Warner was involved in a family dispute that went to court, after he had transferred ownership of a family home to himself directly before his brother's death in 2018; the case was dismissed the following year. In the weeks leading up to 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. He had previously executed a quitclaim deed for a different Nashville house in 2019, transferring his interest in the home to the same woman. Reportedly, Warner had told the woman to whom he gave his car that he had cancer, although whether he actually had cancer is not known. A neighbor said that just before Christmas, Warner had said that "Nashville and the world is never going to forget me." Credit card and receipt records examined by investigators showed that Warner had purchased components that could be used to make bombs. Authorities initially said that Warner had not attracted the attention of police prior to the bombing. However, it was later revealed that Warner's girlfriend, as well as her attorney, had met with police on August 21, 2019. The girlfriend said that Warner had been making bombs in the RV, and her attorney, who also previously represented Warner, indicated that he believed her. Police were unable to make contact with Warner; did not enter Warner's home, yard, or RV; and eventually closed the case as unfounded. Following the visit, police forwarded an incident report to and requested a database check from the FBI. After a "standard agency-to-agency records check", neither the FBI nor the Department of Defense found anything regarding Warner. Search for motives: Investigators searched Warner's home in Nashville after the bombing, and several items were seized, including a computer and a portable storage device. Google Street View images of his address appeared to show an RV similar to the one used in the bombing. Neighbors of the property told a local news outlet that they recognized the RV in the image released by police, saying it had sat unused for years until its owner began giving it renewed attention about a month before the bombing, with it disappearing off the property entirely days before. Neighbors also described Warner as reclusive and said he never discussed politics or religion. Warner is also "believed to have spent time hunting for alien life forms in a nearby state park." Investigators found writings, believed to be by Warner, rambling about various conspiracy theories. The FBI reported that, prior to the bombing, Warner "sent materials which espoused his viewpoints to several acquaintances throughout the country." The packages, which the FBI is investigating, included bizarre writings in which Warner expressed a belief in conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks and the Moon landing; the reptilian conspiracy theory (i.e., that shape-shifting reptilians appear in human guise and attempt to control the world); and in a UFO conspiracy theory (Warner believed space aliens had begun to attack Earth in September 2011 but that it was covered up by the media). Warner also wrote that he believed "Everything is an illusion" and "there is no such thing as death." Aftermath: The Nashville Fire Department evacuated the downtown riverfront, and Mayor John Cooper issued a curfew for the affected area (the area bounded by James Robertson Parkway, Fourth Avenue North, Broadway, and the Cumberland River) starting at 4:30 pm on December 25 and ending at 4:30 pm on December 27. The curfew was later extended, with the boundaries of the affected area scheduled to narrow on December 28 at noon by moving the northern boundary from James Robertson Parkway south to Union Street. In addition, the FAA issued a notice declaring a circular area with a radius of 1 nautical mile (1.15 mi; 1.85 km), centered around the explosion, as "National Defense Airspace", effective that afternoon and lasting for five days. The bombing adversely affected many small business owners operating 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 earlier that year. The bombing revived a debate in the U.S. about which acts are labeled as terrorism and why. 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 following 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. Addressing the terrorism classification debate, a USA Today op-ed pointed to an "unprecedented" combination of different types of terrorism that have made such a labeling difficult, including the intentional minimization of casualties seen from some left-wing groups and other organizations, and Warner's suicide and use of a car bomb seen in Islamic terrorist attacks, along with the lack of a manifesto or other clear evidence of a motive. National security expert Dr. Erroll Southers told local news outlet WKRN he saw similarities to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, given how Warner warned the public about the bomb and allowed the area to evacuate before detonation. 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 the Federal Building, citing the Nashville incident as a reason for the high level of caution. The RV turned out to have a generator, which produced a sound reminiscent of a running engine. On December 27, a section of U.S. Highway 231 in nearby Wilson County, Tennessee, was shut down due to a box truck playing audio "similar to what was heard" before the Christmas bombing. The truck travelled north from the Walterhill community in Rutherford County along Highway 231 until being pulled over. The driver was arrested by the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department, and no explosives were found. He was charged with two felony counts of filing a false report and one of tampering with evidence, and held on $500,000 bail. On December 31, police evacuated and cordoned off downtown Lexington, Kentucky, due to a suspicious RV parked in the area. An officer spotted the RV and, citing concerns ensuing from the Nashville bombing, brought in an explosives-sniffing dog to inspect it. The dog indicated that the RV contained explosives, prompting the evacuations. The scene was declared clear two hours later after no explosives were found and police located the driver.