CHILLING new images show the site of a devastating bombing in Nashville on Christmas Day is still an abandoned shell four years on from the tragedy.
More than 60 buildings were extensively damaged, and one person – the bomber – was killed in the shocking blast on Christmas Day in 2020.
There is still a sense of mystery surrounding the events that transpired on that day, as authorities have acknowledged the impossibility of definitively determining whether the explosion could have been prevented.
The individual identified as the bomber, Anthony Warner, is thought to have parked his RV in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, during the early hours of Christmas morning and subsequently set off a powerful homemade bomb along Second Avenue North at approximately 6:30 am.
Before the explosion, an eerie audio recording counting down to detonation and the Petula Clark song Downtown were heard coming from the RV.
That gave police just enough time to evacuate all the nearby buildings, although the force of the blast still injured three people.
The blast damaged 41 businesses and displaced 400 people, leaving an enormous crater at the scene.
Warner’s remains were discovered in the debris following the explosion.
Even four years after the incident, the city continues to grapple with the impact of the explosion and its aftermath, facing uncertainties regarding the future plans for the downtown location.
The site, including the four-story former Old Spaghetti Factory, is still a vacant shell of a building despite long-term plans to renovate it.
Construction on extensive site renovations is expected to begin in the summer of 2025. The goal is to complete everything by late 2026.
Until then, the century-old historic site will remain a bombed-out ruin.
Warner’s motives for the blast are still unclear.
Some 16 months before the blast, a friend called 911 alleging that Warner “might be building a bomb.”
The blast occurred as many of the area’s independent businesses were already reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Warner, 63, had no criminal record other than a two-year probation served for felony marijuana possession in 1978.
NASHVILLE BOMBING TIMELINE
Dec 25, 2020
- 1:22 am – Anthony Warner parks his RV on Second Avenue in Nashville
- 4:30 am – Local building owner wakes up after hearing several bursts of gunfire
- 5:38 am – A recording begins playing from the RV announcing that the vehicle will explode and telling residents to evacuate
- 6:00 am – A 15-minute countdown begins, playing the 1964 song Downtown by Petula Clark in between warnings
- 6:30 am – The bomb explodes
- 6:45 am – Federal agents and cops descend on downtown streets
Dec 26 – Cops search Warner’s home
Dec 27 – Warner officially named as bomber
He had been involved in a family dispute that ended up in court over the transferred ownership of a property to himself directly before the death of his brother Steve in 2018.
However, that case was dismissed the following year.
His girlfriend had also warned police that she believed he was building a bomb in his RV, but that, too, was dismissed.
On August 21, 2019, the girlfriend told Nashville police that Warner “was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence,” according to the Nashville Police.
The information was forwarded to the FBI, but no serious investigations were conducted.
Today, Nashville residents are still at a loss as to what provoked the bizarre attack or who the intended targets were of Warner’s assault.
