Anthony Warner Named as Nashville Bombing Suspect (original) (raw)

U.S.|A Quiet Life, a Thunderous Death, and a Nightmare That Shook Nashville

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/us/anthony-quinn-warner-dead.html

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A Quiet Life, a Thunderous Death, and a Nightmare That Shook Nashville

DNA tests show that Anthony Warner blew himself up along with a stretch of downtown Nashville on Christmas morning.

Law enforcement officers investigate the house that had belonged to Anthony Quinn Warner, the 63-year-old man who apparently blew himself up in the Christmas morning explosion in Nashville. Credit...Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

Published Dec. 27, 2020Updated June 2, 2021

NASHVILLE — Anthony Warner had a solitary job as an information technology specialist, stopping in to various offices to fix computers. He was 63. He was not married. His neighbors barely knew him.

He sent an email to one of his clients three weeks ago to say he was retiring. He started shedding possessions: He told his ex-girlfriend that he had cancer and gave her his car. Records show that he signed away his home on the day before Thanksgiving.

But he made sure to hold on to one last thing: His R.V., a Thor Motor Coach Chateau that he kept in his back yard.

He parked the vehicle around 1:22 a.m. Christmas morning on Second Avenue North in downtown Nashville, in the heart of a district of honky-tonks, restaurants and boot shops that would often be packed but was quiet in the small hours of a holiday morning. The R.V. had been rigged with explosives and a speaker set to play a warning and a song: “Downtown” by Petula Clark, a hit released in 1964 celebrating the bright lights and bustle of a vibrant city.

The lights are much brighter there / You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares

A few hours later, police officers heard the speaker’s message and rushed to clear as many people out of nearby apartments and hotels as they could. Just before dawn, the R.V. exploded, its concussion reverberating for blocks. Debris was flung several blocks away. Mr. Warner was inside the R.V. It is believed that he was the only person who died.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that Anthony Warner is the bomber,” Donald Q. Cochran, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said at a news conference on Sunday. “He was present when the bomb went off, and he perished in the bombing.”

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