The people of Nashville, Tennessee are rattled, and it’s easy to see why.
The peaceful silence of Christmas morning in downtown Nashville was shattered as an RV parked along 2nd Avenue exploded, killing its owner inside in a devastating attack that investigators still can’t find a motive for.
In the moments leading up to the explosion, the RV itself was using a loudspeaker to countdown the minutes until its detonation.
The Nashville police department was on high alert and was soon dealing with another vehicle with an eerily similar message playing.
The driver of a box truck who caused a scare Sunday outside a convenience store by playing similar audio that was heard coming from a recreational vehicle that exploded in downtown Nashville is facing felony charges, a Tennessee sheriff’s office announced.
The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said late Sunday that members of a church and customers at the nearby market where the white box truck was spotted Sunday morning heard the driver playing audio “similar to what was heard” before the RV exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day.
Sgt. Steve Craig said deputies were called to investigate reports of the truck driver playing audio “loudly” outside the market and later learned that the man was also accused of similar actions outside a church during a service.
Police were not taking any chances and did not approach the matter lightly.
The sheriff’s office said in a statement that 33-year-old driver James Turgeon had been detained and charged with two counts of felony filing a false report and one count of tampering with evidence. Officials say Turgeon was charged with evidence tampering because he “damaged the speaker system wiring intentionally.”
He was being held on $500,000 bond, authorities said.
Thanks to the quick actions of several brave Nashville Metro police officers who went door to door to alert residents of the danger there were no fatalities in the Christmas morning bombing and only 3 injuries were reported.
