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Authorities in Tennessee have shut down a road east of Nashville after stopping a box truck that they said had been playing audio “similar to what was heard” before a recreational vehicle exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day.
The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office says on Twitter that law enforcement officials had shut down a section of highway in Wilson County, just east of Nashville, on Sunday to investigate a white box truck parked on the side of the road. Authorities had sent out a robot to investigate the vehicle as officials stood far back, monitoring the situation.
Sheriff’s officials said the truck had been playing the audio when it was parked at a convenience store at about 10:30 a.m. at the Crossroads Market in Walter Hill. The driver left the parking lot and was pulled over by deputies in nearby Wilson County. Officials said the driver has been detained by law enforcement.
Sheriff’s deputies in Rutherford and Wilson Counties are investigating a box truck parked at a store playing audio similar to the Christmas explosion in Nashville.<br><br>The driver was stopped by deputies and detained.<br><br> Residents evacuated. Investigation active.
—@RCTNSheriff
A Wilson County dispatcher said the road that was shut down was Murfreesboro Road, between Cedar Forest Road and Richmond Shop Road.
Deputies said they had also evacuated residents in the area as they continued to investigate.
WATCH | Nashville explosion wounds 3:
The CBC’s Derek Stoffel reports on the latest developments on the explosion that shook the largely deserted streets of downtown Nashville early Christmas morning. 1:31
Tennessee man under investigation
Meanwhile, Nashville police are investigating a Tennessee man named Anthony Quinn Warner in connection with the bombing that rocked downtown Nashville on Dec. 25.
Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron confirmed Warner’s identity on Sunday. Federal and state investigators are trying to determine who set off a bomb inside a recreational vehicle Friday morning, injuring three people and damaging more than 40 businesses. They are also working to identify human remains found at the scene.
Separately, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that federal investigators have started examining Warner’s digital footprint and financial history. They are also examining a recent deed transfer of a home in suburban Nashville.
The official could not discuss the case publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The official said forensic analysts are reviewing evidence collected from the blast site to try to identify the components of the explosives and are also reviewing information from the U.S. Bomb Data Center for intelligence and investigative leads.
FBI agents also visited a real estate agency where Warner had worked on computers, local media reported on Sunday.
Steve Fridrich, owner of Fridrich & Clark Realty in Nashville’s Green Hills neighbourhood, told the Tennessean newspaper he spoke with the agents late Saturday after the company told the FBI that Warner had worked there.
According to public records, Warner had lived at a home in Antioch, southeast of Nashville, that was searched on Saturday by officials with the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives following the huge Christmas Day blast.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department confirmed that Warner is under investigation in the case.
Federal agents have said they are following up on more than 500 leads and are working to identify what appear to be human remains found in the wreckage.
The explosion in the heart of the U.S. country music capital injured three people and damaged more than 40 businesses, including an AT&T switching centre. The attack has continued to wreak havoc on cellphone service and on police and hospital communications in several southern states as the company worked to restore service.
Fridrich said that for four or five years, Warner had come into the office roughly once a month to provide computer consulting services, until this month — when Warner told the company in an email that he would no longer be working there. He gave no reason, Fridrich said.
“He seemed very personable to us. This is quite out of character I think,” he told the newspaper.
At a news conference on Sunday, five Nashville police officers who were on the scene early on Friday provided details of the dramatic moments around the explosion, when they scrambled to evacuate homes and buildings and called for a bomb squad, which was en route when the motor home blew up.
Officer Amanda Topping said she initially parked her police car beside the RV while responding to the call before moving it once she heard the recording playing. Topping said she called her wife to let her know that “things were just really strange” as she helped guide people away from the RV.
‘This is going to tie us together forever’
That’s when she heard the announcement from the RV switch from a warning to playing the 1964 hit Downtown by Petula Clark. Moments later, the explosion hit.
The officers, who were initially responding to reports of gunfire in the area, have been hailed as heroes by city leaders.
“This is going to tie us together forever, for the rest of my life,” Officer James Wells, who suffered some hearing loss due to the explosion, told the news conference. “Christmas will never be the same.”
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