Federal authorities confirmed this Sunday that Anthony Quinn Warner, the Tennessee resident who had been named by police as a "person of interest" in the explosion of a motor home that occurred in downtown Nashville on Friday, was responsible for the detonation. which also caused his death.
Officials told a news conference that Warner appears to have acted alone and that
there are no more suspects at the moment.
"We are still following leads, but at this time there is no indication that other people are involved," said Douglas Korneski, special agent in charge of the FBI's Memphis field office.
"We have reviewed hours of safety video on the RV. We saw no other people involved."
Investigators used
DNA found at the site of the detonation on Christmas morning
and other evidence to link the 63-year-old to the mysterious explosion.
Authorities said they have not yet discovered a motive for the attack that damaged some 40 nearby buildings.
No more deaths were reported than the author.
FBI and ATF agents search a home on Saturday, December 26, 2020, in Nashville, Tennessee.
AP
Earlier this Sunday, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaronla revealed that Warner was under investigation in connection with the blast and was a "person of interest."
Investigators said, citing public records, that the man had experience in electronics and alarms, and that he
had worked as a computer consultant for a Nashville real estate agency
.
His residence in the city was searched by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Saturday.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake speaks at a news conference Sunday.
This occurred after
that Google Street View images from the address showed a camper parked in the backyard that matched the description police said was used in the blast.
Damage from the explosion
The AT&T company said Sunday that
more than 75%
of the sites affected by Friday's explosion have been
restored
.
Service in the Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama areas is now operating normally.
[Human Remains and Recording: Nashville Explosion Raises New Questions]
In the aftermath of the blast,
communications systems,
including home and cell phone service and 911 call centers, failed across the state, Tennesse Gov. Bill Lee said Saturday.
Kentucky and northern Alabama were also affected, he added.
Authorities tour the scene of the apparently intentional car explosion in Nashville.
"Christmas will never be the same"
This Sunday, police officers gave
heartbreaking details of the response to the explosion,
in testimonies broken by tears, reliving the moments lived this Christmas.
"This is going to bind us forever,
for the rest of my life," Officer
James Wells,
who suffered a hearing loss due to the explosion
, said at a press conference this Sunday
.
"Christmas will never be the same," he added.
"I only see orange and then I hear a loud crash. As I stumble, I tell myself to stay on my feet and stay alive," Wells said, sometimes crying and repeating that he believed he had heard God tell him to walk away moments before of the explosion.
This image taken from a surveillance camera provided by the Nashville Metro shows a recreational vehicle that was involved in the explosion on Friday, December 25, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Nashville Metro via AP
The five officers present at the scene on Friday gave their account of what happened as investigators continued to unravel the motive for the
motor home bombing
that exploded on a mostly deserted street just after a
recorded warning was
issued
that advised people to evacuate.
Officer Amanda Topping said she first parked her car next to the motorhome while answering the call, before moving it once they heard the recording.
Topping said he called his wife to let her know "things were very strange" as he helped guide people away from the motorhome.
That's when he heard the ad for the motorhome changing from a warning to replaying
Petula Clark's
1964 hit '
Downtown'
.
Moments later the explosion happened.
An image of Friday's explosion in Nashville, Tennessee via REUTERS
"
I felt the heat waves but I got lost and started running
towards (Wells)," Topping recounted.
"I have never held someone so strong in my life," he
added.
Officer Brenna Hosey said she and her colleagues knocked on six or seven doors in nearby apartments to warn people to evacuate.
She recalled knocking on a door where a mother of four answered scared.
A powerful explosion turns downtown Nashville into a war field on Christmas Day
Dec. 26, 202003: 12
"I don't have children, but I have cousins and nephews, people I love who are little," Hosey said, adding that she had to
beg the family to leave the building as soon as possible.
With information from AP, NBC News and CNN.