Federal authorities say 63 year old Anthony Quinn Warner of Antioch, Tennessee died when the Nashville Christmas morning bomb went off.
“He was present when the bomb went off and he perished in the bombing,” said Don Cochran, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Tips from the public helped authorities initially identify Warner as a suspect. The Tennessee Highway Patrol discovered a vehicle part from the RV with a Vehicle Identification Number linking it to Warner. The RV was parked outside of an AT&T facility, though authorities have not said whether they believe the telecommunications company may have been a target. The blast caused extensive damage to phone and internet coverage throughout the region, causing communication blackouts for 911 centers in surrounding counties, leaving customers throughout the state without service and exposing vulnerabilities in infrastructure.
“In between a digitized female voice giving warnings to evacuate the area, there was music” said police officers on the scene who recalled hearing “Downtown” a 1964 song by Petula Clark.
According to the Tennessean, Warner grew up in Antioch and attended Antioch High School, graduating in the mid-1970s before settling down in the same community and working various IT jobs.
But in just the past month, Warner appeared to put his affairs in order. He transferred ownership of the home where he had lived for decades. He informed a regular business client he would no longer be working. Property records show on the day before Thanksgiving, Warner transferred the title of his longtime Bakertown Road home to a Los Angeles woman. The transaction, a quitclaim deed that did not require the woman’s signature, was made for $0.
Steve Fridrich, who owns Fridrich & Clark Realty, said Warner was hired four or five years ago as a contractor to provide IT services for the business. Warner repaired the company’s computers and set up machines for new employees.
“In December he sent us an email saying he’d no longer be working for us,” Fridrich said.
Warner didn’t give a reason.
The company reached out to the FBI after learning through news coverage that Warner was a person of interest in the case. Agents visited the office Saturday evening, FBI spokesman Jason Pack confirmed.
Warner hadn’t had a run-in with authorities since 1978, when as a young adult he was charged with felony drug possession. He served two years of probation. Warner does not appear to have a public presence on social media or other websites.
Neighbors who have lived by Warner for decades say he rarely left home, instead spending much of his time working in his yard. He kept to himself, but would speak to his neighbors, engaging in small talk before going on his way.
Steve Schmoldt and his wife have lived next door to Warner for 25 years. He described Warner as “low-key” and friendly, though “some people would say he’s a little odd.”
“You never saw anyone come and go,” Schmoldt said of Warner’s home. “Never saw him go anywhere. As far as we knew, he was kind of a computer geek that worked at home.”
Warner had placed lights and security cameras outside his house.
He would do a lot of work in his yard, where a tall antenna is prominent on the side of the house, Schmoldt said. Warner built the fence around his yard himself.
The neighbors never talked about politics or religion. Warner never gave any indication of any closely held ideology.
“I can tell you as far as politics, he never had any yard signs or flags in his window or anything like that. If he did have any political beliefs he kept, that was something he kept to himself.
Schmoldt said while the RV had been parked outside the home for years, a couple weeks ago, Warner built a gate in the fence and drove the RV into his yard.
Daniel Douglas, who lived across the street from Warner for 26 years, said Warner told him he moved the RV because people were trying to break into it.
He and his wife watched the news Christmas morning as information began to unfold about the Second Avenue bombing. They saw the photos police released of the RV in question. That night, they noticed some cars driving up and down their street.
Then on Saturday they saw a large group of law enforcement outside Warner’s home.
“Holy cow, there’s a SWAT team out there,” Schmoldt recalled his wife saying as she looked out the front door mid-morning.
When Schmoldt learned that whoever was in the RV appeared to have tried to avoid casualties, his mind went to Warner’s devotion to his animals for so many years.
Warner had dogs over the years, first two small Shelties and then a larger dog he adopted, though the pets have since died. Schmoldt said Warner “took really good care of his dogs,” even building a wheelchair ramp for them when they got older so the animals didn’t have to use stairs to get inside the house.
“If it was him, he didn’t want anybody hurt,” Schmoldt said. “But if that’s the case, what other message is there? If indeed it was him, I just, I don’t know. They have to figure out some kind of motive.”
