Investigators say the friends and family of Anthony Warner are cooperating as they try to piece together the motive behind the bombing in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning.
The 63-year-old Antioch resident died in the blast and is the only suspect. But law enforcement are still not sure why Warner decided to blow up his recreational vehicle on Second Avenue.
TBI director David Rausch says they’ve spoken to Warner’s mother, among other people. One question they’re asking is whether he had a fear of the new cellphone technology known as 5G.
Rausch says they’re also looking into the fact that Warner’s father once worked for AT&T. The explosion severely damaged the data center in downtown Nashville owned by that company and interrupted communication in seven states.
Anthony Warner, Courtesy: FBI
“Those are all pieces of the ongoing interviews and investigation that we continue to work on,” Rausch told reporters Monday.
The FBI and ATF are also still on the case. They’re trying to determine how Warner gathered enough explosive material to build a bomb inside an RV without being detected beforehand.
Warner “wasn’t on [their] radar” before he blew up an RV on Christmas Day, Rausch says. “He was not someone who was identified as a person of interest for the bureau, and so we were not familiar with this individual until this incident.”
But at this point, investigators are not calling it an act of “terrorism,” saying they don’t know enough about the man’s motives or ideology.
The agency released a search of Warner’s criminal history. It turned up a single arrest for marijuana possession in 1978.
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