(Headline USA) Several unconfirmed theories cropped up as the mysterious circumstances of the Nashville bombing on Christmas Day continued to unfold.
According to Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake, police officers responded on Friday to a report of shots fired when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. Police evacuated nearby buildings and called in the bomb squad. The RV exploded shortly afterward.
One theory, promoted by the conservative aggregator Revolver, suggested that the bombing may have targeted an AT&T building because the telecom company had secured a contract recently to review voting machines supplied by Dominion Voting Systems.
The attack occurred directly in front of AT&T’s Nashville Main Central Office at 185 2nd Ave N., and as a result it disrupted service to customers in several states.
It is unclear why AT&T would have been tasked with examining the voting machines, and there was no public record or announcement of such an arrangement.
However, there was at least one curious connection: William Kennard, who served as US ambassador to the European Union during the Obama administration and as chair of the Federal Communications Commission during the Bill Clinton administration, is set to take over as chair of AT&T’s board of directors in January.
Kennard also happens to be one of three members on the board of Dominion’s parent company, Staple Street Capital.
A second theory that emerged stopped short of directly implicating Antifa but said that a video posted to YouTube of the explosion had all the hallmarks of events planned by those linked to the domestic terrorism operation.
Red State said that conservative journalist Ford Fischer was among the first to note that the video came from an account set up in 2014 that had no prior postings.
A video on Youtube has gone viral showing the scene of the explosion.
The account that posted it is called “S McG” and has no bio or info, and has never posted until today since joining in 2014.
Vid: https://t.co/6n7jtjXYK4
Channel: https://t.co/MtrWjNi8jJ pic.twitter.com/dHRUuoy7u5— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) December 25, 2020
In fact, it appeared that the user, “S Mc G” had only set up a Twitter account very recently and contained no biographical information or other details. .
But it did bear similarities to another YouTube account that had five videos posted, including some from Sept. 11 this year.
“S McG” who posted the bombing video has an almost identical username to “S Mc G” – who only joined Youtube in April 2020 and also has no bio.
The five videos posted on it, posted over the course of three weeks, are all very bizarre.https://t.co/0yX8pHtOUO pic.twitter.com/sUT30Qq1BP
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) December 25, 2020
Ford noticed that the videos posted on Sept. 11, which bore some similarities to the Nashville video, such as the fade to black and white at the end.
Moreover, one of the videos originated from a TikTok video, which includes President Donald Trump mouthing the words “I would sacrifice my life for Pakistan. I love Pakistan!”
@akumpoReply to @alxkzmrz #fyp #foryou #trump2020 #biden 2020 #meme #memes♬ original sound – akumpo???
Fischer said he knew nothing more about the suspicious accounts and that the theories were pure conjecture.
I want to be very clear: I have no idea who “S McG” is or whether they’re the same person as “S Mc G”, and even if so, whether that person was involved in this incident.
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) December 25, 2020
However, he said he had nonetheless reported the information to the FBI, which is leading the investigation.
Meanwhile, federal agents converged Saturday on the home of a possible person of interest in the explosion as investigators scoured hundreds of tips and leads.
Investigators from multiple federal and local law enforcement agencies were at a home in Antioch, in suburban Nashville, after receiving information relevant to the investigation, said FBI Special Agent Jason Pack.
Another law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said investigators regard a person associated with the property as a person of interest.
Federal agents could be seen looking around the property, searching the home and the backyard. A Google Maps image had shown a similar recreational vehicle parked in the backyard when the photo was captured in May 2019; an AP reporter at the scene did not see the vehicle at the property in the late afternoon Saturday.
There were other signs of progress in the investigation, as the FBI revealed that it was looking at a number of individuals who may be connected to it. Officials also said no additional explosive devices have been found — indicating no active threat to the area. Investigators have received around 500 tips and leads.
“It’s just going to take us some time,” Douglas Korneski, the special agent in charge in charge of the FBI’s Memphis field office, said at a Saturday afternoon news conference. “Our investigative team is turning over every stone” to understand who did this and why.
Asked whether the AT&T building could have been a possible target, Korneski said, “We’re looking at every possible motive that could be involved.”
Investigators shut down the heart of downtown Nashville’s tourist scene — an area packed with honky-tonks, restaurants and shops — as they shuffled through broken glass and damaged buildings to learn more about the explosion.
Mayor John Cooper has enforced a curfew in the downtown area until Sunday via executive order to limit public access to the area. More than 40 buildings were affected.
AT&T said restoration efforts are facing several challenges, which include a fire that “reignited overnight and led to the evacuation of the building.” This has forced their teams to work with safety and structural engineers and drilling access holes into the building in order to reconnect power.
“Our teams continue to work around the clock on recovery efforts from yesterday morning’s explosion in Nashville,” the company said in a Saturday statement. “We have two portable cell sites operating in downtown Nashville with numerous additional portable sites being deployed in the Nashville area and in the region.”
Ray Neville, president of technology at T-Mobile, said on Twitter that service disruptions affected Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Birmingham and Atlanta. “We continue to see service interruptions in these areas following yesterday’s explosion. Restoration efforts continue around the clock & we will keep you updated on progress,” he said in a tweet Saturday.
The outages had even briefly grounded flights at the Nashville International Airport, but service was continuing normally as of Saturday. The Federal Aviation Association has since issued a temporary flight restriction around the airport, requiring pilots to follow strict procedures until Dec. 30.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
