6 officers commended for evacuating Nashville blast site
Fox News correspondent Charles Watson joins 'America's Newsroom' with the latest on the Christmas Day bombing.
The Tennessee man who officials say detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville in the early morning hours of Christmas Day allegedly used to spout anti-police rhetoric to a person he worked with, according to a recent report.
Anthony Quinn Warner died in the Friday morning blast near an AT&T building in Music City – which went off shortly after an audio recording blared from his recreational vehicle urging passersby and those in nearby buildings to evacuate, and warning them that a bomb would detonate in minutes.
Decades earlier, in the '70s, Warner allegedly spoke about about his disdain for law enforcement, the Daily Beast reported.
Tom Lundborg told the website he was a teenager when Warner allegedly told him: "I hate cops. They're all corrupt."
Warner and Lundborg worked together for Lundborg’s father’s security system company A.C.E. Alarms at the end of the 1970s, according to the report.
The pair spent day-after-day for at least "a couple years" working together and driving from job to job, Lundborg told the outlet. The car rides would sometimes turn to conversations about police.
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"Never trust a cop," Lundborg recalled Warner telling him in one of the now decades-old car-ride chats.
According to the report, Warner also told the man he served in the Navy, though it was not clear if he actually did.
Police were responding to a report of shots fired when they spotted the suspicious RV, which played the ominous warning before switching to Petula Clark’s "Downtown."
The bomb went off just minutes later at approximately 6:30 a.m., damaging dozens of buildings and wounding three people, and killing only Warner
Body camera footage released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department shows officers canvassing the area surrounding Second Avenue North and asking at least one person to move to a safer location as they investigated the suspicious vehicle.
"Your primary objective is to evacuate these buildings now," a voice can be heard coming from the RV, according to the nearly 13-minute video recording. "Do not approach this vehicle."
"That's so weird," the officer is heard remarking. "That's like something out of a movie."
"Like 'The Purge,'" another officer responds.
Out of view of the RV, a boom can be heard, following by car alarms blaring and debris landing along the surrounding area.
Before his death, Warner, 63, changed his life in ways that suggested he never intended to survive the blast.
He gave away his car – and told the recipient he had cancer – and signed a document that transferred his longtime home to a California woman for nothing in return. A freelance IT consultant, he told an employer that he was retiring.
But he didn’t leave behind a clear digital footprint or any other obvious clues to explain why he set off the explosion in his parked recreational vehicle or played a message warning people to flee before it damaged dozens of buildings and knocked out cellphone service in the area.
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.
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David Rausch, director of Tennessee’s Bureau of Investigation, told NBC’s "Today" show on Monday that officials might never get "a complete answer" as to why Warner detonated the explosive. He also noted that the audio recording leads investigators to believe Warner was not interested in hurting others.
"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 that he had no intention of harming anyone but himself, but that obviously plays into our investigation," he said. "It does appear that the intent was more destruction than death, but again, that’s all still speculation at this point as we continue in our investigation."
While investigators tried to piece together a possible motive for the attack, a neighbor recalled a recent conversation with Warner that seemed ominous only in hindsight.
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Rick Laude told Fox News on Monday that he and Warner chatted briefly less than a week before Christmas. After asking how Warner’s elderly mother was doing, Laude said he asked his neighbor: "So, is Santa going to bring you anything good for Christmas?"
Warner smiled and said, "I’m going to be famous. Nashville and the world is never going to forget me," Laude recalled.
Laude said he never noticed any suspicious activity from Warner over the decade they knew each other.
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"Anthony Warner, in my opinion, lived a very quiet life. Didn’t have a girlfriend or a wife, no kids," Laude told Fox News. "I guess in hindsight, I’m thinking that when he told me what he told me, he already knew. Certainly, he wasn’t going to tell me, ‘I’m going to blow up Second Avenue at 6:30 in the morning.’"
Fox News' Henry Klapper, Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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