Police claim Nashville bomb suspect died in blast

The 63-year-old suspect in the bombing that rocked Nashville on Christmas morning was killed in the blast that destroyed his motor home and damaged more than 40 businesses, authorities said on Sunday.

Federal Bureau of Investigation forensic experts matched DNA samples recovered from the scene to that of Anthony Q. Warner, whose home in nearby Antioch was searched on Saturday by federal agents. Late on Sunday, the FBI tweeted a photo of Warner.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that an individual named Anthony Warner is the bomber and he was present when the bomb went off and that he perished in the bombing,” Donald Cochran, US Attorney for Tennessee Middle District, told a news conference.

Officials said it was too early in the investigation to discuss his motives.

Warner’s motor home, parked on a downtown street of Tennessee’s largest city, exploded at dawn on Friday moments after police responding to reports of gunfire noticed it and heard music and an automated message emanating from the vehicle warning of a bomb.

The explosion in the heart of America’s country music capital injured three people and damaged businesses, including an AT&T switching center, disrupting mobile, internet and TV services across central Tennessee and parts of four other states.

As investigators followed up on hundreds of tips, they searched Warner’s home on Saturday and visited a Nashville real estate agency where he had worked.

The owner of Fridrich & Clark Realty, Steve Fridrich, told the Tennessean newspaper that for four or five years Warner had come into the office roughly once a month to provide computer consulting services, until this month when Warner told the company in an email that he would no longer be working for them. He gave no reason. “He seemed very personable to us — this is quite out of character I think,” Fridrich told the newspaper.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program on Sunday that local officials felt there had to be some connection between the bombing and the AT&T Inc building.