A sheriff’s office in Tennessee has found the driver of a pickup truck that caused a panic outside a store on Sunday by playing similar sounds heard from a recreational vehicle that exploded in downtown Nashville.
The sheriff of Rutherford County said late Sunday that members of a church and customers at the nearby market where the white pickup was spotted Sunday morning heard the driver playing sound “similar to what was heard” before the RV on Christmas Day in downtown Nashville exploded. .
Sgt. Steve Craig said deputies were called in to investigate reports of the truck driver making loud noises outside the market, and later learned that the man was also accused during a service of similar conduct outside a church.
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The sheriff’s office said in a statement that 33-year-old driver James Turgeon had been detained and charged with two counts of misdemeanor and false testimony. Officials say Turgeon’s tampered with evidence because he ‘intentionally damaged the speaker’s wiring.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said a robot was sent to inspect the truck and no device was found.
Turgeon is being held on a $ 500,000 bond, authorities said.
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Earlier Sunday, police received reports around 10:30 a.m. of a “suspicious” pickup truck parked at a Crossroads Market in Walter Hill in the county.
Officials say the driver left the parking lot and was pulled over and detained by authorities. Law enforcement agents closed part of the highway in neighboring Wilson County as authorities sent a robot to investigate.
No explosives were found, said Lieutenant Bill Miller of the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Investigators are working at the scene of an explosion on Saturday, December 26, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. The blast that shook the largely deserted streets of downtown Nashville early Christmas morning shattered windows, damaged buildings and injured three people. (AP Photo / Mark Humphrey)
On Sunday, officials identified the suspect on Christmas Day as 63-year-old Anthony Quinn Warner. Police have considered Warner a person of importance in the bombing since at least Saturday when federal and local investigators gathered at the house linked to him.
The bombing took place on Christmas Day before the streets in the city center swarmed with an announcement that someone nearby had been warned that a bomb would explode soon. Then the sound switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s hit “Downtown” in 1964 shortly before the explosion.
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Warner was killed in the blast. Officials have not publicly stated a motive in the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.