With "a significant portion" of its investigation finished, the FBI on Monday said it has determined Anthony Warner detonated a bomb in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day in order to die by suicide, not to commit an act of terror.
Warner, 63, died after detonating an explosive device inside his RV. The bombing also damaged at least 40 buildings and disrupted communications in the region. The FBI said it has sifted through more than 3,000 pounds of evidence from the blast site, reviewed 2,500 tips, and conducted over 250 interviews, and agents are confident that Warner acted entirely on his own.
Investigators were not been able to find any indications that the bombing was meant to spark social or political change, or due to any personal grudges, CBS News reports. Instead, the FBI said it was "an intentional act in an effort to end his own life" and "driven in part by a totality of life stressors — including paranoia, long-held individualized beliefs adopted from several eccentric conspiracy theories, and the loss of stabilizing anchors and deteriorating interpersonal relationships."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In late December, law enforcement officials told NBC News that Warner made comments about conspiracies involving lizard people and discussed hunting for possible aliens.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.