The Tennessee “computer geek” behind the Christmas Day bomb blast in Nashville was a chronic loner who built a fence around his home to keep others out, according to a report.
Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, had increasingly closed himself off prior to the bombing, neighbors told The Tennessean.
Just weeks ago, Warner built a gate in the fence, pulled his RV into the driveway, and shut the gate, neighbors told the newspaper.
It was the same vehicle authorities said Warner packed with explosives and detonated in the city on Friday, 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.”
He described his longtime neighbor as “a little odd.”
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 massive disruption to communications systems that even blacked out 911 centers in surrounding counties, The Tennessean said.
Gov. Bill Lee on Saturday issued an emergency declaration seeking federal aid for businesses impacted by the blast, he posted on Twitter.
A curfew remained in place until Sunday, although downtown remained restricted.
Authorities said 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, the report said.
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.
High school golf coach Charlie Bozman, for whom Warner played, recalled him as a quiet and unassuming student.
“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,” Bozman said.
But in recent weeks, Warner seemed to be settling accounts.
Property records reviewed by The Tennessean show that Warner transferred ownership of his longtime home to a California woman the day before Thanksgiving.
Warner, who had been working as an IT consultant for a local realty firm, emailed the company’s co-owner earlier this month.
“In December he sent us an email saying he’d no longer be working for us,” said Steve Fridrich of Fridrich & Clark Realty, for whom Warner had worked for nearly five years.
He never gave a reason.
Police are questioning acquaintances about reports that Warner feared 5G technology, but have yet to find a motive for the bombing.
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