More than a year before Anthony Warner detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day, officers visited his home after his girlfriend told police he was building bombs in an RV trailer in his home, according to documents obtained by Associated Press. But they could not contact him or see him in his RV.
Officers were called to Pamela Perry’s home in Nashville on August 21, 2019, after receiving a report from her attorney that she was making suicide threats while sitting on her front porch with firearms, Metropolitan Nashville police said Tuesday in an e. postal statement said.
According to a police report, Raymond Throckmorton, Perry’s attorney, told officers that day that he also represented Warner.
When officers arrived at Perry’s home, police said she was sitting with two unloaded pistols next to her on the porch. Police said the guns belonged to ‘Tony Warner’, and that they did not want them in the house anymore. Perry, then 62, was subsequently transported for a psychological evaluation after talking to mental health professionals by telephone.
Throckmorton told the Tennessean that Perry feared for her safety, and thought Warner could harm her. The lawyer was also at the scene that day and told officers Warner “regularly talks about the military and making bombs”, the police report reads.
Warner “knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb,” Throckmorton told officials.
Police then went to Warner’s home, about 1.5 miles from Perry’s home, but he did not answer the door when they knocked several times. The report said the RV was seen in the backyard, but the yard was fenced off and officers could not see into the vehicle.
According to the report, there were also ‘several security cameras and wires attached to an alarm sign on the front door’. Officers then notified supervisors and detectives.
“They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his house or fenced property,” the police statement read.
After officers visited Warner’s home last August, the police’s hazardous devices department received a copy of the police report. During the week of August 26, 2019, they contacted Throckmorton. According to police, officers recalled Throckmorton and said Warner “does not care about police” and that he does not allow Warner to allow a visual inspection of the RV.
Throckmorton disputes that he told police they could not search the vehicle. “I don ‘t think about that,” he told the Tennessean. “I did not represent him anymore. He was not an active customer. I’m not a lawyer. ‘
Throckmorton told the newspaper that he represented Warner in a civil case a few years ago, and that in August 2019, Warner was no longer his client. “Someone dropped the ball,” he said.
A day after officers visited Warner’s home, the police report and information about Warner were sent to the FBI to check their databases and determine if Warner had military ties, police said.
Later that day, the police department said “the FBI returned that they had checked their belongings and had not found a record on Warner at all.” An FBI spokesman Darrell DeBusk told the Tennessean agency the agency had set a standard-control-agency-to-agency record.
Six days later, “the FBI reported that the Department of Defense had a negative investigation into Warner,” police said.
No other information about Warner came to the attention of the department or the FBI after August 2019, police said. “No evidence of a crime has been found at any time and no further action has been taken,” the statement said. “The ATF also had no information about him.”
Warner’s only arrest was for a marijuana charge in 1978.
The bombing happened on Christmas morning, long before the streets in the city center were crowded. Police responded to a report of shots fired Friday when they encountered the RV, eliminating a warning that a bomb would explode within 15 minutes. For reasons that may never be known, the sound switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s 1964 hit Downtown shortly before the explosion. Dozens of buildings were damaged and several people were injured.
Investigators have not discovered a motive for the Christmas Day bombing, nor have it been revealed why Warner chose the specific location, which damaged an AT&T building and wreaked havoc with cellphone, police and hospital communications in several southern states while the company worked to restore service. The company said Monday the majority of services have been restored for residents and businesses.