The person or persons who detonated an explosive in a motor home in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas Day may have been targeting a nearby AT&T facility, Mayor John Cooper says.
“Those of us in Nashville realize that on Second Avenue, there is a big AT&T facility and the truck was parked adjacent to this large, historic AT&T facility, which happens to be in downtown Nashville,” Cooper said in a Dec. 27 interview with CBS News. “And 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.”
He added that it’s “a bit of just local insight in because it’s got to have something to do with the infrastructure.”
The explosion is thought by law enforcement officials to have been the result of a suicide bombing; human remains were reportedly found at the scene.
The incident disrupted 911 operations and residential issues in the region; AT&T is working to restore service, Cooper added. The AT&T facility itself, “a lot of it probably survived” the blast.
“But you have flooding after these events that gathers in basements,” the mayor added. “And so some of the problems may have been the result of the cure than from the bombing itself.”
Cooper said an investigation is ongoing.
Over the weekend, throngs of federal agents were seen searching a home in Antioch, about 10 miles southeast of the explosion site, for clues about the blast. Federal agents, meanwhile, were also attempting to identify apparent human remains found near the exploded vehicle.
“Once we have processed the scene, we will look at the evidence and anything that we have recovered from this residence and see how that fits into this investigation,” FBI spokesman Darrell Debusk told Reuters on Dec. 26.
“At this point, we’re not prepared to identify any single individual,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Doug Korneski said at a news conference.
While officials on Dec. 16 declined to name a person of interest in connection with the explosion, CBS News reported that the investigation has focused on Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, who recently lived at the Antioch address, public records showed.
According to a document posted online, on Nov. 25, he signed over the property to a woman in Los Angeles at no cost to her. The document was signed by Warner, but not by the woman.
