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Downtown Nashville Sealed Off After "Intentional" Explosion. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired December 25, 2020 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:27]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And welcome to this special Christmas edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anderson Cooper in New York.

That, the sound of Christmas morning jolt in downtown Nashville, a bomb exploding, charring cars, littering the streets with broken glass, smashed trees. Dozens of buildings said to be impacted by that. There's a federal investigation moving to figure out why this happened.

Here's what we know at this hour. Police discovered an RV early this morning broadcasting a warning, a bomb will explode. A recorded device stated that warning. Police then cleared the area and the bomb went off.

The damage to Nashville's downtown is extensive, but luckily, the bomb only caused minor injuries, no one is dead. Police say there is no other active threat at this time.

Now, last hour, Nashville police put out this photo of the RV that they say exploded on second avenue this morning. Authorities say the RV arrived a little after 1:00 a.m. this morning and it exploded five hours later.

Federal law enforcement sources telling CNN there was no flurry of chatter among domestic chatter groups about a Christmas attack leading up to this morning.

What we don't know is just as significant. Police say there is no motive. They also found no body in that RV, hinting that the person or persons responsible may still be at large.

CNN's Natasha Chen is in Nashville near the scene of the explosion, and Josh Campbell is getting details from federal law enforcement officials.

So, Natasha, to you first, what's the situation this hour on the ground?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, it is very quiet here. And for anyone who has spent time in the historic downtown area of Nashville knows this is a typically a bustling area and a holiday season. Of course, a lot has changed with COVID-19 protocols, but now with this perimeter behind us, it's absolutely quiet.

We're on Second Avenue where this explosion happened, but several blocks away, you could see the police cars there with their flashing lights and the tape blocking things off. Where this happened, far off in the distance, you can see this rusty colored taller building there. That's approximately where the blast happened this morning.

As you mentioned, police have put out a picture now of the RV they believe to be at the center of this that had come onto this street overnight. You know, this is really shaking people. We even saw some folks who had come into town for Christmas come up to us within the last hour just to share their support for Nashville and praying with the city.

Right now, there is a public cry for help as far as tips are concerned. Asking people to call in with whatever they know. The Nashville Visitor and Conventions Corporation even contributed $10,000 to a reward fund for information leading to whoever is responsible for this.

There is a ground stop at the Nashville airport right now. That's all related to this explosion because of the service outage as far as phones go, a lot of Wi-Fi is down, 911 calls have been affected today. So law enforcement and folks telling people that if they have trouble calling 911 for emergencies to please continue trying to dial.

So this is definitely affecting a lot of the service around this downtown region. A lot of the streets are blocked off. The ramps from the freeways coming into downtown also closed. So police are really trying to seal this off.

As far as the people who live right next to where the blast happened, CNN has spoken to some of them who have shown the damage inside their homes. And now the American Red Cross has also set up services for people who are affected, Anderson.

COOPER: Josh Campbell, obviously, authorities have not said anything about a motive at this time, or who may be behind this, whether it's individuals or a group. I'm wondering what you're hearing thus far and what do you make of just how this was set up, the fact there was a recording device giving at least a 15-minute warning a bomb would go off from the RV and also choosing this location at this time, you know, around 6:23, I think it was or so, on Christmas morning. Obviously, not a lot of people around in that area.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think my views are summed up by one federal law enforcement source I spoke with who said they're simply baffled. If you look at the way this transpired with you have first that call that went out to 911 of shots fired, as authorities arrive downtown in Nashville, they met this RV, and they heard this recording going off saying that a bomb will explode in 15 minutes.

[16:05:09]

Now, that's key because if the idea, the goal here was to cause just indiscriminate mass loss of life, you wouldn't have a warning and likely a suspect wouldn't detonate a device early in the morning on Christmas Day in a place you didn't have a lot of people. So, that is really baffling investigators right now because they don't know what the actual motive was. What they're doing is looking at the circumstances surrounding it. They know this RV appeared to be parked next to this AT&T switching center which provides service in and around the area Natasha was just saying how that detonation has caused this massive outage at the airport and other places to include the 911 service.

But right now, they're just baffled. Another question they have, they're sifting through right now, police tell us, they don't know if the bomb maker, the person responsible for this, perished inside this RV or whether this person is now out and a manhunt is necessary.

But what we're hearing from them because they have these questions is an appeal to the public. If anyone has information, they want to hear to you, to include that image we showed. That's something we had been waiting on for quite some time, an image of that RV. And now, we're getting that indication. It appears to be a white Ford Econoline van, this class C RV. We don't know whether this was rented, whether the person owned it.

We do know, I can tell you, having worked in investigations, a vehicle investigation is sometimes easier, a bomb involving a vehicle, because you have a unique identification number, you have a license plate potentially they can use to try to backtrack, but what they're trying to determine, was anyone in and around the area that recognized this RV pulling up, see anyone get out of it, or perhaps someone who may know someone who owns an RV like this, that potentially be a part of this, they want to hear from you. A lot more questions than answers right now, Anderson.

COOPER: Josh, obviously, authorities have released this image. They want people to see it and we want people to know about it, see if anybody has recognized.

But given that they have this image, I'm not sure how extensive the security camera setup is in the historic or downtown district of Nashville, but I imagine there's a fair amount of cameras. So, if they have this image, what are the chances they have images of whoever is driving this and/or a license plate?

CAMPBELL: Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, we don't see a license plate on the front of this RV. In fact, in Tennessee, a front license plate is not required so we don't know if they have identification already made, but I think what the goal is with this image being released is to let the public look at this and say, hey, you know, I may -- I saw this downtown. If any of us see a vehicle, we usually don't pay much attention, but if you -- you know, if you get the imagery, you might be able to say, yeah, I saw someone get out. This person went this direction.

What we're told is they're not only gathering CCTV footage in and around downtown Nashville, but also widening the scope to include the freeways, convenience stores, rest stops, those kind of things because if this vehicle was inbound to the Nashville area from outside and the person never made a stop, and never got out of the vehicle to be captured on video, they want to backtrack to identify where the vehicle came, but the goal right now is to just to try to trigger in the memory of anyone who might have seen this or may know someone who may be responsible to call authorities if they recognize this RV.

COOPER: Josh Campbell, appreciate it. Natasha Chen, we're going to check in with both of you throughout the next few hours.

We've just learned President-elect Biden has been briefed on the explosion in Nashville. Earlier, we heard that President Trump had been briefed.

I want to bring in Nashville's vice mayor, Jim Shulman.

Vice Mayor, I appreciate you being with us.

What are you hearing from Nashville police and federal law enforcement about this explosion?

VICE MAYOR JIM SHULMAN, NASHVILLE: There's a lot of people working on this right now. It's -- I know our metro police were on the scene very, very early on. Obviously, they were called for gunshots. We're still trying to figure out what that meant. And we had officers who were injured during the explosion.

The fire department got there, and now, we got our Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation working on this case. All working together.

COOPER: Police said that the RV that exploded was playing a recorded warning. Do we know anything about the recording? About the voice? Was it male? Was it female?

SHULMAN: We think it was female. Just if you watch, there is a video out, because there's cameras in lots of different places. There was a female voice speaking.

It is so strange. What a strange way to open up a Christmas morning. It was, we believe it was a female voice, from the video, telling people to evacuate the area. And people did.

There were a number of people who did evacuate, and we know some people who it didn't go off when the message said it would, and so people started coming back in. And then it went off.

We were very lucky that very few people were actually injured.

COOPER: And obviously, police haven't said or at this point don't know whether this was detonated by somebody remotely, whether it was just on a timer, that point, am I correct, that's not publicly known at this point?

[16:10:08]

SHULMAN: That is not publicly known at this point. I think that's going to take a lot more research to figure this one out. Again, we have a lot of people working on this.

But I mean, what a -- we have been through so much in 2020. What a sad Christmas Day.

But again, three people injured. Hopefully that's it. Hopefully they all recover. And we have some work to do. Hopefully very quickly, to figure out who did this and why.

COOPER: And police early on said that they did not have concerns about other devices out there. Do you know what they based that on?

SHULMAN: Well, so I was down there this morning pretty early, and didn't get very close. They had the area obviously restricted. I actually got out of the elevator right in front of city hall, which is not very far away from where this happened. And they were evacuating buildings in the area.

I think they were making sure. They had the bomb sniffing dogs out. I think they were making sure that everybody was safe. And so, they really were trying to keep people away so they could make sure that there was nothing else that was going to happen.

You know, so far, everybody thinks it's just this one incident. But everybody wanted to be very careful and very safe.

COOPER: You know, in the early 1970s in the United States, there were thousands of bombings by mostly left-wing political groups, radical groups back then. It's something that became almost commonplace in the United States back then. It's obviously not commonplace now to have anything like this happen.

And back then, it was also often damage to property as opposed to people being targeted. Obviously, whoever is behind this, had they wanted to have a mass casualty event, they would have probably gone about it differently, correct?

SHULMAN: Well, you know, it was early Christmas morning. A lot of people not out. Nashville is a place where there's a lot of tourists, but it's obviously a lot of restrictions in place because of the pandemic.

Early Christmas morning, and you are not necessarily in a place where there would have been a lot of traffic anyway. It was kind of off the main street where the honky-tonks are and most of the crowds are.

It's a little strange. And we're trying to figure out what it meant. Obviously, there's going to be research to figure out why it was right across from an AT&T building where there's a lot of communications, those communications have been interrupted.

But nobody is quite sure why. And the whole thing is, again, very strange because you had an RV, I think you have seen pictures of it coming in. Got to go back and trace it. Why were there gunshots? Why were the police summoned?

Obviously summoned because of the gunshots. Then why was there a strange recorded message and then an explosion on a street downtown, but on a very quiet street on Christmas morning? Again, we're pretty lucky.

COOPER: Just finally on the gunshots, do we know for a fact there were gunshots or just a call about gunshots, and do we know the source of that call. I assume it was a call to 911. Do you know if it was from -- is it clear, was it a citizen calling or do police not know?

SHULMAN: So, we have gotten a lot of information, obviously, there's a lot of stuff flying around today in the city. What we heard early on was there was a call to 911 about gunshots. I have seen at least a witness being interviewed who said there were gunshots. I think this is going to take a little while to uncover. There's a lot of people working on it. Don't want to tell you anything that's wrong. I just know that a lot of people are working on it and we're going to get it figured out.

COOPER: Yeah, obviously, often early reports are to be questioned thoroughly because a lot of people see things in the heat of the moment or hear things and it takes a while for things to become clear.

Vice Mayor Shulman, I appreciate your time today. Thank you. I'm sorry we're talking under these circumstances.

SHULMAN: Well, we'll get through this, and I appreciate the time.

COOPER: Yeah. It's been a tough year for Nashville, and they don't need this. But we appreciate all the efforts that have been done.

SHULMAN: Certainly has.

COOPER: Up next, more on what the federal government is saying about the explosion and a look at how the quick response of officers likely helped save lives.

Plus, the incredible doll of the coronavirus on the U.S. December now the deadliest month of the pandemic.

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[16:18:11]

COOPER: In the wake of this morning's explosion in Nashville that authorities are calling intentional, the FBI has set up a tip line for anyone who may know something.

CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez has been following the story all morning.

So, Evan, the FBI is involved along with the ATF. What are they looking for at this point and what kind of resources are being sent to the area?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, they're bringing in resources from around the country. The Memphis FBI field office is taking the lead in the investigation, but they're also bringing in the ATF and the ATF has sent in its national response team.

Now, these are some of the best bomb techs in the business. They are going to take a look at if they can find pieces of this device that set this off, this explosion. Obviously, they're going to be examining the pieces of that RV that they can find there, examining other evidence from the buildings that were damaged to see whether or not, whether they can determine first of all, was there a timing device, you know, those types of things, questions you were just asking the vice mayor.

There's still very, very few clues as to what exactly happened here because obviously, the fact is someone set off a device, 6:00 in the morning, clearly, they weren't trying to cause mass casualties. So what was the point here? What were they trying to do?

Again, that building right across from where the explosion took place is unoccupied. Largely unoccupied technical building owned by AT&T. It operates the switches, the exchanges for the phone system there. That's why there's been so much damage there, but we don't know at this point what exactly drove this person to do this.

[16:20:01]

And again, the clues are, they clearly wanted to give a warning to people to stay away from the vehicle. They wanted to draw law enforcement into the scene, so, so many clues they're going to go through, including, of course, the pictures of that vehicle to try to see if they can identify someone inside there.

BERMAN: Yeah, I mean, the -- I'm interested in this, you know, the reports of gunshots, which is what drew police in in the first place.

PEREZ: Right.

BERMAN: Was that -- were there actual gunshots. Was it something made to sound like gunshots that then other people would call 911, or is this something that the individual or individuals involved in this bombing actually called in and was it to draw police in to evacuate anyone who may be around or was it to draw police in to injure police officers?

PEREZ: Right, exactly. That was one of the first questions we had this morning, because we heard from some of the reports, from some of the neighbors, some of the witnesses that there were reports of gunfire. Now, it's quite possible that whatever was broadcasting those warnings, saying, you know, stay away from this vehicle. It's about to explode. It is quite possible whoever was broadcasting that may have been broadcasting sounds of gunfire. That is also possible.

So again, you know, at this point, there's so much mystery about exactly what was the motive here, was it to draw the first responders and then set this off to hurt them? Or was there something else that was the motive here or that was the point of carrying out what is essentially a vehicle bombing, right? That's what this is.

So the investigation clearly, though, Anderson, is really early. And they clearly don't have much of an idea of who could be behind this. The fact they have put out this picture tells us a lot. It tells us that they're still searching. They want the public to send as much information as possible because they have very little to go with.

COOPER: Yeah, Evan Perez, appreciate it. We'll check back with you shortly.

Joining me is CNN law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey. He's a former Philadelphia police commissioner, former Washington, D.C. police chief.

You say this RV warning stands out to you. Why?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I mean, it's highly unusual. I don't if there's ever been a case where there's a bombing and there was a recorded message given prior to the actual detonation. Maybe there has been. I have certainly never heard of it.

COOPER: You mean at the site? There must be bombings where people call in there's a bomb in a location?

RAMSEY: Yeah, yeah, but not at the site with an actual audio recording like what they're describing here. So that's unusual in itself.

But the fact that they did it at this time of morning, on Christmas morning, they did have a warning. Obviously, the motive wasn't large loss of life. But then what was the motive?

I mean, if it wasn't meant to kill a lot of people, then what was the motive? And so, that's going to be something that investigators are going to be really trying to sort through and find out if they're ever able to find out the actual motive.

COOPER: How difficult do you really think that would be? Because again, if they have released this surveillance video already, security camera video or CCTV video of the RV, I would imagine they have other images of it that may give more details about the driver, anybody else in the front seat, any license plate.

RAMSEY: I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, they could tell from that one image the direction of travel and so what they'll do is go back and look for any kind of surveillance video at all to find out whether or not they can pick anything up in terms of the movement of the vehicle, where it may have originated to try to get a tip or a clue as to who was driving it, is it one person, more than one person, or what have you.

So they're going to be pulling out all the stops in order to try to find out exactly what took place. That national response team that ATF has is the best in the world, probably, so they're going to be doing a lot of work. It's not only bomb techs. They have chemists that are part of that group to try to find out exactly what kind of explosive was used.

All the kind of information that you would expect to have while they're building this case, but right now, they have one heck of a crime scene that stretches literally for blocks up on the ground and also on rooftops that they're going to have to carefully comb through.

COOPER: And in something like this, I mean, the motives could be anything. It could be corporate against some of the businesses on that street. Some grudge somebody has. It could be political, trying to make a statement based on some of the businesses on that street. It could just be more random, just to sow terror.

[16:25:00]

I mean, there's a lot of potential different motives.

RAMSEY: It could be anything. But they could have also picked that spot because they wanted to minimize any possibility of loss of life or at least, you know, make it a little less likely that that would occur. I mean, 15 minutes is not a lot of time. It's my understanding from the deputy mayor that just spoke that it was a little longer than 15 minutes before the police to be able to evacuate the area.

Which no doubt, you know, saved lives or at a minimum saved people from serious injury from flying glass or other types of debris from the explosion.

COOPER: Charles Ramsey, appreciate your time. Thank you.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

COOPER: We have more on our breaking news in Nashville. The city's mayor says there's extraordinary damage but only minor injuries from the powerful explosion. Congressman Jim Cooper represents the district. He'll join me live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: New information this hour on the bombing in downtown Nashville this morning. The city's vice mayor telling me just minutes ago that they believe the recorded voice broadcasting a warning about the bomb from the RV authorities say exploded was female. The voice in the recording was apparently female.

Police are calling the incident an intentional act, but so far have not identified any suspects or a motive.

I want to bring in Congressman Jim Cooper.

Congressman, thanks for being with us. I'm sorry it's under these circumstances. What is your reaction to today's explosion?

REP. JIM COOPER (D-TN) (via telephone): Hey, Anderson. This was a terrible shock, especially for Christmas morning. The people of Nashville are strong, and we'll bounce back, but the FBI is in charge of the investigation now, and I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of it.

COOPER: I mean, obviously, Nashville has had a tough year. Been through a lot, I mean, right now, there's this horrific pandemic, which is just devastating in Tennessee. I know you have been in touch with federal authorities. Have they told you anything?