Nashville Bomber's Girlfriend Reportedly Warned Police In 2019 He Was 'Building Bombs'

Over a year before Anthony Warner allegedly set off a bomb on Christmas morning in downtown Nashville, his girlfriend had alerted police that he had been making bombs in his RV, according to a new local news report.

Shortly after the Dec. 25 blast that injured three and damaged 41 buildings, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said that Warner — who is believed to have died in the bombing — was “not on our radar” prior to the blast. But new documents uncovered by The Tennessean newspaper reveal that 16 months ago Warner’s girlfriend, who the Associated Press identified as Pamela Perry, had spoken with the Metro Nashville Police about concerns that he was building bombs. That information had been passed on to federal authorities, according to a report obtained by the paper.

Perry told Nashville police on August 21, 2019 that Warner “was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence,” according to a police report obtained by the paper.

Perry’s attorney, Raymond Throckmorton III, who says he had previously represented Warner, had called police to her home that day as he said she was experiencing a mental health crisis, according to the police report. When they arrived, Perry was sitting on her porch, where she handed over two unloaded guns to authorities. She lives just a mile and a half away from Warner’s home.

“She related that the guns belonged to a ‘Tony Warner’ and that she did not want them in the house any longer,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron told the outlet.

Throckmorton, who was also at the scene that day, told officers that Warner “frequently talks about the military and bomb-making” and that he “knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb.” He urged police to investigate, the police report said, and also told them that Perry had feared for her safety.

Police said in their report that they went to Warner’s home to investigate the claims, but he did not come to the door, The Tennessean reported. Officers said they saw an RV behind the property with “several security cameras and wires attached to an alarm sign on the front door,” but it had been fenced off and police were unable to see inside.

“They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property,” Aaron told the paper.

Aaron said the report was provided to the department’s hazardous devices unit and also passed to the FBI, which was asked to look into their databases.

Special Agent Jason Pack of the FBI’s Knoxville Field Office confirmed to Oxygen.com in a statement that the FBI had been contacted by Nashville Police.

“On August 22, 2019, the FBI received a request from the Metro Nashville Police Department to check our holdings on Anthony Warner and subsequently found no records at all,” he said. “Additionally, the FBI facilitated a Department of Defense inquiry on Warner at the request of the Metro Nashville Police Department which was also negative.”

Pack described the inquiry as a “routine request to see if the subject had ever served in the military.”

Aaron told The Tennessean that officers tried to follow up on the concerns, but that Throckmorton told them that Warner “did not care for the police” and that he didn’t grant authorities consent to visually search the RV.

However, Throckmorton told the outlet that although he had represented Warner in a civil matter years ago, he was no longer representing him in August 2019 and disputed that he’d told police they couldn’t search the RV.

“I have no memory of that whatsoever,” he said. “I didn’t represent him anymore. He wasn’t an active client. I’m not a criminal defense attorney.”

Throckmorton contended that “somebody dropped the ball.” Aaron told the newspaper that police did not have “any evidence of a crime” and therefore no additional action was taken.

Authorities did not receive any further reports about Warner until the Christmas day bombing.