- In an August 2019 police report discovered by The Tennessean, it was found that the girlfriend of the alleged Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner had earlier told the authorities that she believed he was making a bomb in his RV.
- Police in Nashville visited Warner’s property at the time, but did not find him at home. They did observe the RV in its backyard, but could not see it.
- Police conducted an investigation into Warner at the FBI and Department of Defense after their visit, but both organizations said they had no record of him.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The girlfriend of the suspected Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner spoke to the police more than sixteen months ago about her boyfriend, according to new documents obtained by The Tennesseean.
The Tennessee man discovered a report from Metro Nashville police in April 2019, in which Warner’s girlfriend, who has not yet been named, told police he “built bombs in the RV trailer in his residence.”
Police were called to the girlfriend’s home in Antioch, Tennessee, after her lawyer, Raymond Throckmorton III, became concerned about comments she made. Throckmorton previously served as an attorney for Warner in a civil case, but did not represent him in August 2019. According to documents seen by The Tennesseean, he told officers at the time that Warner “talks regularly about the military and making bombs”, and “knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb.”
After police spoke to Throckmorton and Warner’s girlfriend, police stopped at Warner’s Bakertown Lane home and spotted an RV in his backyard. According to the report seen by The Tennessean, it was fenced and officers could not see it. They did notice that it was surrounded by a number of security cameras and wires attached to a[n] alarm sign on the front door. ‘
According to The New York Times, a report of the incident and an investigation into Warner were sent to the FBI and the Department of Defense. Both organizations reported that they had no records of Warner.
Authorities are still speculating about what motivated Warner, but David B. Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, told The TODAY Show on Monday, “it appears that the intent was more destruction than death.”
Warner was the only victim in the blast, although several people reported injuries.
Rausch insisted that Warner had not been previously investigated by the bureau.
“He was not on our radar,” he told “TODAY.” “He was not someone identified as a person of interest to the bureau. So we were not familiar with this individual before this incident.”
“It’s pretty obvious to me that someone did not do what they were supposed to do,” Throckmorton told News Channel 5.
The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a police recruiting center at Kisak, west of Baghdad.
“It looked like a large prop from a movie scene, while all the glass was broken,” Officer Amanda Topping told a news conference on Sunday.
The RV explosion occurred outside an AT&T facility and damaged more than 40 buildings.