Nashville bomber Anthony Warner: what we know so far

The RV bomb in Nashville shocked a nation on Christmas Day and led to feverish speculation about what ideology and motives may have been behind the atrocity.

We still do not have all the answers, but we do now know a little more about the person who police say was the perpetrator of the blast.

Authorities identified the man as Anthony Quinn Warner.

Warner, 63, was a “computer geek” who neighbors say went to extraordinary lengths to keep other people away from him.

Among other measures, he is said to have built a fence around his home to keep others out, according to a report in The Tennessean.

Warner had increasingly closed himself off prior to the bombing, neighbors told the outlet.

A few weeks ago, he built a gate in the fence, pulled his RV into the driveway, and shut the gate.

That RV was the same vehicle police said Warner packed with explosives and detonated in the city on Christmas Day, killing himself and injuring three.

“You never saw anyone come and go,” neighbor Steve Schmoldt told The Tennessean. “Never saw him go anywhere. As far as we knew, he was kind of a computer geek that worked from home.”

Schmoldt said neighbors didn’t even notice when the RV disappeared from Warner’s driveway.

“To be honest, we didn’t really pay any attention … it was gone until the FBI and ATF showed up,” he said.

The 6:30 a.m. blast outside a Nashville AT&T facility damaged 41 buildings and caused a massive disruption to communications systems that even blacked out 911 centers in surrounding counties.

Gov. Bill Lee on Saturday issued an emergency declaration seeking federal aid for businesses impacted by the blast.

A curfew remained in place until Sunday, although downtown remained restricted.

Authorities said Sunday that DNA samples confirmed that Warner died in the blast.

Warner grew up in Antioch outside Nashville, graduated from Antioch High School in the mid-1970s and began working IT jobs in the area.

He had one run-in with the law in 1978, when he was charged with felony drug possession and was sentenced to two years of probation.

Yearbooks from Antioch High School show Warner, a short teenager with glasses, played on the school’s golf team.

Charlie Bozman, a longtime Metro high school coach, was in charge of Antioch’s golf coach in 1974 when Warner played.

“What I can remember about him was essentially three things: quiet, polite, and I don’t like to use the term, but quite frankly nerdish,” recalled Bozman. “He was a very reserved person. He wasn’t outgoing around me.

“I never had any discipline problems with him whatsoever, but that whole group was all great kids.”