NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Two Metro Nashville committees working to investigate what happened before and after the Christmas Day bombing are offering updates on their progress so far.
We don't hear much about what’s said in the After Action Review meetings, but we now know the panel has interviewed two key witnesses.
Metro Nashville City council member Jennifer Gamble serves on the five-member panel and says this they’ve interviewed Anthony Warner’s then-girlfriend who tipped off police back in 2019.
She told police back in August of that year, that suspected bomber Warner “was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence.”
The panel also interviewed Warner’s attorney Ray Throckmorton who told police that same day that Warner “frequently talks about the military and bomb-making.” Throckmorton would go on to say Warner “knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb.”
Gamble says hearing from these two has made a difference, but she won’t share what was said. She tells us the priority is to find if police should consider any policy changes knowing Warner was on the radar but was never in custody.
“What was done? What was done well and what could be done better,” Gamble says are the questions she needs officers to answer this Friday. Several of the officers who responded to Warner’s home in 2019, will be interviewed by the panel.
The panel includes:
- Deputy Chief Dwayne Greene
- Attorney/Professional Standards Division head Kathy Morante
- Nashville attorney and former United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Ed Yarbrough
- Community Oversight Board Executive Director Jill Fitcheard
- Metro Council member and chair of the Public Safety Committee Jennifer Gamble
“The work is still just beginning. It’s not completed and I don’t suspect it is near completion,” Gamble said.
While the After Action Review is hyper-focused on the events before the bombing, Metro’s Special Bombing Review Commission also looks at everything else impacted by the blast.
The commission which is now in the process of selecting its members will have one year to investigate all aspects of the bombing. Metro council member Freddie O’Connell says while the group is in its early stages, we should expect to see hearings and audits of different departments if necessary. He too plans on interviewing the officers involved in responding to Warner's home.
“We still have a lot of questions about chain of command of when the suspect was contacted first by police in 2019,” O’Connell said.
Shockwaves from the blast could be felt in the days following as telecommunications struggled, flights were grounded and dispatch disrupted. O’Connell says all these things need to be explored.
