NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) – More than a year before Anthony Warner detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville at Christmas, officers visited his home after his girlfriend told police he was building bombs in a RV trailer in his home, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. But they couldn’t make contact with him or look inside his RV.
Agents were called to Pamela Perry’s Nashville home on August 21, 2019 after she received a report from her attorney that she made suicidal threats while sitting on her porch with firearms, Metropolitan Nashville police said in a statement by e-mail Tuesday. -mail. According to a police report, Raymond Throckmorton, the attorney, had told the officers that day that he also represented Warner.
When officers arrived at Perry’s house, the police said she had two empty pistols on the porch next to her. She told them those weapons belonged to “Tony Warner,” police said, and she no longer wanted them in the house. Perry, then 62, was then transported for a psychological evaluation after a telephone conversation with mental health professionals.
Throckmorton told The Tennessean that Perry feared for her safety and thought Warner would harm her. The attorney was also on site that day and told officers to Warner “often about the military and bomb-making,” the police report said. Warner “knows what he’s doing and is capable of making a bomb,” Throckmorton told agents who responded.
Police then went to Warner’s house, about 1.5 miles from Perry’s house, but he did not answer when they knocked several times. They saw the RV in the backyard, the report said, but the yard was fenced off and officers couldn’t see inside.
The report said there were also “several security cameras and wires attached to an alarm sign on the front door” of the house. Agents then notified regulators and investigators.
“They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or enclosed grounds,” the police statement said.
After officers visited Warner’s home last August, the police department’s dangerous devices department received a copy of the police report. In the week of August 26, 2019, they contacted Throckmorton. Police said officers remembered Throckmorton saying Warner “did not care about the police” and would not allow Warner to “allow a visual inspection of the RV.”
Throckmorton disputes that he told police they could not search the vehicle. “I have no recollection of that,” he told The Tennessean. ‘I no longer represented him. He was not an active client. I am not a criminal defense attorney. “
Throckmorton told the paper that he represented Warner in a civil suit several years ago, and that Warner was no longer his client in August 2019. “Someone dropped the ball somewhere,” he said.
A day after officers visited Warner’s home, the police report and identifying information about Warner were sent to the FBI to check their databases and determine if Warner had previous military connections, police said.
Later that day, police said, “The FBI reported that they had checked their property and found no records of Warner at all.” FBI spokesman Darrell DeBusk told The Tennessean that the agency conducted a standard desk-to-desk check.
Six days later, “the FBI reported that the Department of Defense checks on Warner were all negative,” police said.
No other information about Warner came to the attention of the department or the FBI after August 2019, police said. “No evidence of a crime has ever been discovered and no additional action has been taken,” the statement said. “The ATF had no information on him either.”
Warner’s only arrest was on a marijuana-related charge in 1978.
The bombing took place on Christmas morning, long before downtown streets were bustling with activity. Police responded to a report of shots fired on Friday when they encountered the RV, shouting a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. For reasons that may never be known, the audio switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s 1964 hit “Downtown” shortly before the explosion. Dozens of buildings were damaged and several people were injured.
Investigators did not discover a motive for the Christmas Day bombing, nor was it revealed why Warner chose the specific location, which damaged an AT&T building and wreaked havoc on cell phone, police, and hospital communications in several Southern states while the company was operating to restore the service. The company said on Monday that most of its services for residents and businesses have been restored.