Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner apparently chose Christmas morning for his devastating suicide bombing because his “intent was more destruction than death,” a lead investigator said Monday.
The 63-year-old loner blew up a number of buildings in particular when the usually crowded streets in the city’s historic downtown were mostly deserted, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said. David Rausch spoke on the NBC program “Today”.
He also ‘gave the opportunity to clear the area’ with warnings from his parked RV ‘that an explosion was imminent’, Rausch said of the sound that also played Petula Clark’s classic pop song ‘Downtown’ bizarre.
The evidence “certainly gives you the insight that the possibility was that he did not intend to harm anyone other than himself,” the senior investigator said.
“It turns out that the intent was more destruction than death,” he said.
The massive investigation – involving federal, state and local authorities – is hampered by the fact that the IT consultant apparently has no social media presence, or leaves a suggestion of political ideology, the investigator confirmed.
“We do not know for sure that we will ever reach the full answer, because of course the person is no longer with us” to be questioned, Rausch said.
“We may never find out the exact reasoning behind the activity that took place,” he added.
The office’s director also revealed that his team was able to confirm that Warner was killed in the blast by means of excess DNA from a hat and gloves from one of the attacker’s old cars.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper said Sunday the bombing appeared to be an ‘infrastructure attack’ aimed at the AT&T building on the block, leading to major service disruptions in several states.
“For all of us locally, it feels like there has to be a connection to the AT&T facility and the site of the bombing,” Cooper said. tells CBS News ” Face the Nation. ”
“It must have something to do with the infrastructure,” he said of the attack by a man who believes in conspiracy theories over 5G networks.