Nashville bombing suspect Anthony Warner’s girlfriend told cops LAST year that he was making a bomb: Report
Police were warned last year that the Nashville bomber had been making bombs at his residence, but authorities reportedly did not take any steps to investigate him. On August 21, 2019, Anthony Warner's ex-girlfriend had reportedly told Nashville police that he "was making bombs in the RV trailer at his residence." However, a year passed and not much was done since her tip, The Sun reported.
Nashville police reportedly forwarded the tip to the FBI and the ATF. However, Warner wasn't home when authorities arrived at his residence to search the premises. According to the report, investigators were denied entry to search the property when they returned for a second time. Without facing consequences, Warner was successfully making bombs throughout the summer and into 2020. In the early hours of Christmas Day, the detonation shattered a major chunk of downtown Nashville, injuring at least three people and killing Warner.
Raymond Throckmorton, a lawyer for Warner's ex-girlfriend, reportedly called police on that day to say that his client was concerned about comments he had made, according to records reviewed by The Tennessean. Warner's ex also said she wanted to get rid of two guns that reportedly belonged to Warner from her home, which was roughly a mile and a half from Warner's.
Throckmorton, per the records, told authorities that his client said Warner "frequently talks about the military and bomb-making," adding that he "knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb."
"I made a report on the spot for him to get checked out and I did all that I knew I could do," Throckmorton told WTVF.
According to the report, Throckmorton had represented Warner in several real estate suits in the past, but believed what his girlfriend was alleging. "She was so convincing that morning, and so distraught," the lawyer explained, "that I decided in the front yard in the middle of all those police officers on the spot. That even though it was a former client of mine, that somebody needed to go check it out right then."
At Warren's property at 115 Bakertown Road, authorities saw the RV sitting on his driveway. However, it was fenced off and they were unable to inspect it any further. According to the report, police also saw "several security cameras and wires attached to an alarm sign on the front door." Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron asserted, however, that police "saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property."
After the Nashville Police Department forwarded the tip to federal investigative agencies, Aaron said "the FBI reported back that they checked their holdings and found no records on Warner at all." Furthermore, the Department of Defense also said its "checks on Warner were all negative" on August 28, 2019.
"At no time was there any evidence of a crime detected and no additional action was taken," a spokesperson for the department said in a statement. "No additional information about Warner came to the department’s or the FBI’s attention after August 2019."
"I am floored the report says that," Throckmorton commented. "And to find that out now."
"It's pretty obvious to me that somebody didn't do what they were supposed to do," he added.