Christmas Day 2020 will be memorable for the people of Nashville for all the wrong reasons. This morning a RV exploded in the downtown area causing significant property damage. Fortunately, there were no fatalities and three people were treated at hospitals for non-life threatening injuries. All things considered this could have been much worse.
But in what has been an awful year with the COVID-19 pandemic, a Christmas respite would have been most welcome. Alas this was not to be.
The RV exploded outside of an AT&T transmission center (it is not known whether anyone was inside the vehicle). The explosion subsequently caused cell phone outages as far as away in neighboring Kentucky and Alabama, disrupted 911 service and even forced the delay and cancellation of flights.
So who is responsible for this act? When one thinks of deliberately set explosions one think of radical Islamic groups. Although the attack took place on Christmas Day, I'm guessing that this is not the case in this instance. Prior to the RV exploding there was a warning from the RV that it was going to explode in 15 minutes and a demand for an evacuation. Police were already on the scene having responded to shots fired in the area. That's not part of the radical Islamic ammo which typically seeks to maximize civilian casualties.
As of this writing, no one has taken responsibility for this act. Based on current information, I'm inclined to think that AT&T was the target and the objective was to disrupt communication services. In which case are these the actions of a former employee? Or are they the actions of a fringe political group who might have an axe to grind with AT&T for its corporate practices?
At this point that determination will be made by the FBI.
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