No sooner had Anthony Quinn Warner been named as a person of interest in an apparent Christmas Day suicide attack in Nashville, Tennessee, when conspiratorial circles began to question his identity or else applaud his actions.
Warner, 63, is accused of causing a bomb in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning, in which he damaged more than 40 businesses, killed himself and injured several others. Investigators have not yet identified a motive for the attack. Nonetheless, a certain pro-Trump segment appears to have sided with the bomber, while another Tennessee man reportedly attempted a similar threat – albeit without actual explosives – on Sunday.
Officials have not disclosed Warner’s possible motives, or whether the incident is being treated as an act of terrorism. Early reports suggest the FBI is investigating whether Warner (who, according to law enforcement officials, detonated the bomb from a recreational vehicle outside an AT&T building) was influenced by conspiracy theories about 5G technology. A broker who worked with Warner who was questioned by the FBI told Nashville’s WSMV that agents were inquiring about Warner’s interest in the technology, but they were unaware if he had any such beliefs.
But even before those potential motives came to light, some conspiracy movements were already looking to exonerate Warner. Moments after his name came out in connection with the case, subscribers to the far-right QAnon conspiracy movement began flooding Twitter with absurd ideas, falsely claiming that Warner was an actor, in part because another Anthony Quinn was a Hollywood star before he died in 2001. Other QAnon followers have truncated his name to associate his initials with made-up clues, or to parse parts of his name to represent ‘Q WARN’.
Theorizing didn’t stop with anonymous Twitter accounts. Lin Wood, a lawyer who tried to reverse the election in favor of President Donald Trump, appeared to cast doubt on the bombing in multiple tweets. In one, he included Warner’s name in a tweet about false accusations. In another, he tweeted photos of a devastated part of downtown Nashville, noting that “ that RV certainly delivered a powerful punch. Or did it happen? “
Wood did not return a request for clarification on the tweets.
For his part, Trump, who had previously rebelled against acts of property damage and accused leftists of terror, is clearly moderate on the bombing.
“President Trump has been briefed on the explosion in Nashville, Tennessee, and will continue to receive regular updates,” said Judd Deere, White House spokesman. Washington Post in a statement on Friday. “The president is grateful for the incredible first responders and prays for those who have been injured.”
Trump has not yet tweeted about the attack. Asked if Trump had made a comment or intended to make a comment, Deere told The Daily Beast, “I’m his spokesman and I have, so yes, he did.”
While QAnon supporters debated Warner’s innocence, pro-terror outlets on the Telegram messaging platform openly embraced his tactics. Some of those channels, which have called for civil war and violent attacks, welcomed the possibility that Warner could be a QAnon-influenced terrorist – or, in the origins of these groups praying for violence from elderly conspiracy theorists, a ‘boomer bomber. ‘. . “
On Sunday, another Tenneseean reportedly mimicked Warner’s bomb threat, albeit without the bomb. James Turgeon, 33, is accused of driving a truck through neighboring Rutherford County in Nashville while broadcasting a warning similar to the one Warner played from his RV before the bomb exploded. While Turgeon reportedly played similar audio, officials said Turgeon and Warner did not appear to be related.
Turgeon’s motives are also unknown, although his digital footprint is larger than Warner’s, who did not appear to have had public social media under his own name. On Facebook, Turgeon shared multiple memes about standing with Trump on Nov. 7, after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory became apparent.
Turgeon, who is being held on a $ 500,000 bond, was charged with two felonies of filing a false report and one of tampering with evidence. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, told media on Monday that Turgeon appeared to have grafted the Warner bombing.
“There is no connection other than the individual taking advantage of the situation,” Rausch said Monday.