U.S. Investigators Name Nashville Bomber, Say He Died in Blast

The man suspected of setting off a bomb in Nashville that ripped through the southern U.S. city's downtown on Christmas morning has been named by authorities as they confirmed he died in the blast.

"We've come to the conclusion that an individual named Anthony Warner is the bomber, he was present when the bomb went off, and that he perished in the bombing," federal prosecutor Don Cochran told a press conference.

The special agent in charge of the FBI's Memphis field office, Doug Korneski, said that there was "no indication that any other persons were involved," although he added they were still following leads.

Authorities at the press conference said that with the investigation ongoing they could not give details on any motive, but said Warner had not been on their radar prior to the blast.

Police had reportedly identified Warner, 63, on Saturday as a "person of interest" in connection with the explosion, which came from a parked motorhome that blared a warning minutes before it blew up. 

They had searched a house in Antioch, a neighborhood in the Nashville area, but declined to confirm at the time if they had a suspect.

Friday's explosion in historic downtown Nashville, the United States' country music capital, damaged about 40 buildings and injured at least three people, with the streets largely abandoned at the early hour.

Authorities found human tissue at the blast site, which Tennessee Bureau of Investigations chief David Roush confirmed at the press conference was a match to DNA found in a vehicle Warner had used.

Police said at the time of the blast that it was an "intentional act" but the motive remained unclear, and FBI behavioral analysts were involved in the investigation.

Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn on Twitter praised the law enforcement officers who responded to and are investigating the bomb, and said she had asked President Donald Trump to grant Nashville a federal disaster declaration, a technical move that triggers federal assistance in repairing damage and providing aid.

According to a timeline provided by the authorities, police were called to the area to respond to gunfire at 5:30 am, and officers spotted the motorhome at 6:00 am.

Fifteen minutes later, they heard an audio countdown coming from the vehicle warning of a bomb -- interspersed with music -- and the need to evacuate.

Police have not said if anyone was inside the motorhome at the time but lauded the officers who arrived at the scene and took quick action.

The motorhome was parked in front of a building for phone company AT&T, causing damage that disrupted telecommunications service in Tennessee as well as parts of Alabama and Kentucky.

AT&T said in a statement that customers in the three states were still experiencing outages, more than 48 hours later. The company added that more than 25 temporary cell towers and 24 trailers of disaster recovery equipment were being deployed in the region to restore service.

- Who was Tony Warner? -

According to the Tennesean.com news portal, Warner grew up in Antioch and attended Antioch High School, graduating in the mid-1970s before settling down in the same community and working various IT jobs.

But in just the past month, Warner appeared to put his affairs in order. He transferred ownership of the home where he had lived for decades. He informed a regular business client he would no longer be working.

Property records show on the day before Thanksgiving, Warner transferred the title of his longtime Bakertown Road home to a Los Angeles woman. The transaction, a quitclaim deed that did not require the woman’s signature, was made for $0.

Steve Fridrich, who owns Fridrich & Clark Realty, said Warner was hired four or five years ago as a contractor to provide IT services for the business. Warner repaired the company’s computers and set up machines for new employees.

“In December he sent us an email saying he’d no longer be working for us,” Fridrich said.

Warner didn’t give a reason.

The company reached out to the FBI after learning through news coverage that Warner was a person of interest in the case. Agents visited the office Saturday evening, FBI spokesman Jason Pack confirmed.

Warner hadn’t had a run-in with authorities since 1978, when as a young adult he was charged with felony drug possession. He served two years of probation.

Yearbooks from Antioch High School show Warner, a short teenager with glasses, played on the school’s golf team.

Charlie Bozman, a longtime Metro high school coach, was in charge of Antioch’s golf coach in 1974 when Warner played.

“What I can remember about him was essentially three things: quiet, polite, and I don’t like to use the term, but quite frankly nerdish,” recalled Bozman. “He was a very reserved person. He wasn’t outgoing around me.

“I never had any discipline problems with him whatsoever, but that whole group was all great kids.”

Today, Warner does not have a public presence on social media or other websites.

- Neighbors say Warner had no obvious political ideology -

Neighbors who have lived by Warner for decades say he rarely left home, instead spending much of his time working in his yard. He kept to himself, but would speak to his neighbors, engaging in small talk before going on his way.

Steve Schmoldt and his wife have lived next door to Warner for 25 years. He described Warner as “low-key” and friendly, though “some people would say he’s a little odd.”

“You never saw anyone come and go,” Schmoldt said of Warner’s home. “Never saw him go anywhere. As far as we knew, he was kind of a computer geek that worked at home.”

Warner had placed lights and security cameras outside his house.

He would do a lot of work in his yard, where a tall antenna is prominent on the side of the house, Schmoldt said. Warner built the fence around his yard himself.

The neighbors never talked about politics or religion. Warner never gave any indication of any closely held ideology.

“I can tell you as far as politics, he never had any yard signs or flags in his window or anything like that. If he did have any political beliefs he kept, that was something he kept to himself.

Schmoldt said while the RV had been parked outside the home for years, a couple weeks ago, Warner built a gate in the fence and drove the RV into his yard.

Daniel Douglas, who lived across the street from Warner for 26 years, said Warner told him he moved the RV because people were trying to break into it.

Warner received packages frequently, his neighbor said, and in the past year installed a mailbox. Previously, Warner used a post office box to receive his mail but then began receiving packages at home, Douglas said.

As news unfolded Friday morning, it wasn’t immediately obvious that Warner and his RV were nowhere to be found.

“To be honest, we didn’t really pay any attention it was gone until the FBI and ATF showed up,” Schmoldt said.

He and his wife watched the news Christmas morning as information began to unfold about the Second Avenue bombing. They saw the photos police released of the RV in question. That night, they noticed some cars driving up and down their street.

Then on Saturday they saw a large group of law enforcement outside Warner’s home.

“Holy cow, there’s a SWAT team out there,” Schmoldt recalled his wife saying as she looked out the front door mid-morning.

When Schmoldt learned that whoever was in the RV appeared to have tried to avoid casualties, his mind went to Warner’s devotion to his animals for so many years.

Warner had dogs over the years, first two small Shelties and then a larger dog he adopted, though the pets have since died. Schmoldt said Warner “took really good care of his dogs,” even building a wheelchair ramp for them when they got older so the animals didn’t have to use stairs to get inside the house.

“If it was him, he didn’t want anybody hurt,” Schmoldt said. “But if that’s the case, what other message is there? If indeed it was him, I just, I don’t know. They have to figure out some kind of motive.”