Subject:*
A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: https://wr.al/1JadF
Nashville Mayor John Cooper is giving an update on the explosion that occurred in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning.
Show Transcript
okay? I haven't. Okay. Beautiful. Probably because it up e got five layers. That thing e I do. Morning news. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When I was running a camera in one degree weather, I'm for me t o e Gotta hear it somehow e e good to finally see us see all the time out of here and never see a e know her. Not really. But they called me at, I think, 6. 45. So, yeah, I went from that to getting ready to down here in about It takes me 35 minutes to get to the state. It's Springfield E a Good hour, E get down here. So, e, you're not basically Yeah, kind of waiting by the car in question. I do have. Ah, nice. Ugly left Lane. Closed. Sign back there, hasn't he? Now I'm doing the morning show in the morning, and I'm assuming Sunday too. No, it's supposed to be on vacation for, like, five days. I will, Yeah, part of it. I get holiday thing, and then over time, So you know? Uh huh. Two days way, way I wrote to them. Were you with? All right, I'm in the mayor's office. E I haven't gotten to meet anyone. E they will not be here. Chief Drake will be here. So you guys have probably already heard all of this. But rest this center of the American process at the community center we go is giving free rides to people who need it. Mayor will be here at five. To give an update with Drake and Swan Drake and want to answer any questions. The feds will not be here, but Drake can answer any of those questions on. And you guys already know about the curfew that went into effect at 4. 30. Right until Sunday at 4. 30. Okay. And then everything else you guys can ask the mayor. I can't make any guarantees. What I'm going to do after he does his update is try toe walking down the line and give everybody just a few minutes. I can't make any guarantees, but I will do my absolute best. At least You guys a gentleman. Five. Okay. Um believe I think after the five o'clock, you could go. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously we will be in continue with continual touch. Will start to send out email updates to try to keep you guys a little better informed Now that we've kind of gotten through today. Yes, sir. I think if you went home after this today, you're not gonna miss out on a E. Wouldn't Do you like that? Take Yes. 16. Okay, Perfect. Yeah. Let me and let me go ahead and do that. Now, if anyone wants to send me an email at Andrea dot fanta at Nashville dot gov I will make sure that you continue to get update. No, it's Andrea dot Fanta. Like the drink. F a n t a at national dot gov My check my check. 34567 Thank you s email. Just one more time. Yeah, we've got if you sexually must have before Yes. Yes. Filter. Oh, how okay. I'm gonna as to that buddy I can't make OK, but he's gonna major five. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, like check. 123123123 Check. Okay. You're going through that, Everybody. Okay, everybody good. Sorry. I'm sorry. I don't see it. Others okay? Yeah. Yeah. What have sound of it all? E Oh, don't You haven't been home since then. Maybe the miners told you that? Sensitive. Hey, good evening. Like this is still a very active scene right now. In fact, police have pushed books about a quarter Ramallah, the road from where that massive explosion went off in downtown Nashville this morning. We know right now that the F B I m a t f for taking the lead in this investigation as we now learned that possibly human remains may have been found. Athletics, collusion, sunlight. That's right. And so that's definitely something that will be asked at this press conference in just a few minutes. We're expecting to hear from the mayor. He was actually just in for few around the area of the blast site that started at 4 30 local time this afternoon. It will go through Sunday after as well. So this is just try to keep people away from the downtown or for investigators are really working on this. We are right now is where all the media are gathered. It's worth press conferences, air happening. It's on Second Avenue when several blocks away from where the That's I think in the for this long, Yeah, nobody on the streets. And that's what a lot of down life right now. Granted, it was already pretty quiet in national facility season because of 4th 19 and other restrictions such. But of course, after this Ah, lot of the downtown area going, Gramps, Freeway ramps coming into the downtown area. Okay, so we are expecting again. As women, you the mayor, We're going to be able to ask questions to the fire chief and police chief about the latest in the investigation. Of course, FBI, other federal authorities are working on the scene that they will rituals will not be present at this press coming up right now that the American Red Cross is offering services to a lot of the people who may be affected. And you know these folks? Yeah. Thank you just to okay. Yeah. There are a lot of system issues. Okay. Uh huh. Except Yep. Yeah. Okay. Not even. Okay. Can you Can you leave me on standby calling Richie? Because he's the one who is able to keep me. Okay. It's cool. Thank you. Yeah. So we're going to take it, take it from your cameras and very accurate on. Flights on the Nashville airport were temporarily halted due to telecommunications issues associated with the explosion those flights have sent to resume such a girl. He was She looks, whatever your lifetime address with live. Okay, that's good. Check your dad's now. Yeah. Look better without Yep, something quality, you know. Yeah, sure. Great. Thank you. No, don't worry about it. So I guess it's been final there, and I don't need to go to school here about their own place. Okay, Private proper means you are. Yeah. Alright. This is getting I don't know What's your number? Thank you. You gonna What was your one battery? Good. Good. Okay, that's what E guess we're gonna do that whole phone, okay? E just tried to call the FBI. Doesn't work. So called me. I'm always going with Bill. Okay, give me okay. You know, many I can plug in the plan is just pop up and C c no, have a little shit. I went home. This is what you hear, Manchester? Just Yeah, Okay. Okay. He's not for this. Yes, e. Here's what a favorite spot. Yeah, you know, the problem is yeah, Well, um, or felt just walking that way because that's one season of the important that there's gonna be no more first conferences after the you know what, possibly want to sit on the hard way that you're good with. Okay? Feelings we have? Yes, From me. This is this is Poppy. Do you e Just watch sometimes. Do you? I can't. What? You don't have the right. You possibly change my my heart. E just post to get flagged. I believe the argument walked out of court. Your house? The department? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have five Children paid it. Okay, let's get back. You mean, maybe you have. So, Yeah, I just want to see all over the world some time for that. Possible that when she's been trying to give everybody over there. You bet. You Yeah. Yeah, This issue traffic. Therefore, it is not about still a very active scene here in downtown Nashville. That law enforcement, they have found human remains at the site of that massive explosion camera authorities released on this surveillance video of the explosion. You can hear a recording asking way. Yeah, Okay. Good evening. I want to thank everyone for being here this evening on. I want to thank our media partners for being with us throughout the day to help us get critical news and information out. This time I'm gonna introduce Mayor John Cooper, who has a brief update for everyone. He's also here with Chief Drake and Swan from police and fire who can also take your questions. So this time I'm gonna call on nationals Mayor John Cooper. Well, thank you all for being here. I'm chief Chiefs, and I just have a walking tour of the devastation on Second Avenue. And as of you know, as of right now, it does. Initial evidence does show that the early morning explosion was a deliberate bomb being set off in our community on the blast caused injuries and catastrophic damage to this very historic part of Nashville. Now, at the end of the day, I think all of us, I certainly have gone from relief that there were not more casualties. And that's an amazing thing that there were not. Particularly when people began to see the devastation on Second Avenue to relief that there were not more casualties to now anger and determination and resolve, and it resolved to be to rebuild and not to be deterred and to bring whoever was responsible for this to justice. I've spoken with Governor Lee, who is working with us to have a declaration of a civil emergency, both with the state and then 40 mature work with FEMA to bring all possible resource is to convince to rebuilding Second Avenue to go forward, not being deterred by this, I'm grateful to our state and our federal partners toe help this important part of Nashville rebuild and come back. There are 41 at least separate businesses that are materially damaged by this glass. There will be others, um, as we see the full extent of this, but already you can tell that it's going to need special help. Special resource is, and I'm grateful to the state partnering with us to commit to rebuilding seconds. Now I want to stand with our downtown residents on our business owners, for whom this was a terrible day. What we are like. Nashville has faced other challenges, particularly this year. We can rebuild and go back to normal now, as announced earlier, Metro is also establishing a curfew in the explosion impact area from 4 30 today until 4:30 p.m. This Sunday. Now affected businesses. I would urge them to contact Crystal Lap in the central Precinct 86 to 8600 to be able to manage coming back to your facilities safely. But in the meantime, a curfew area is gonna provide safety and security for businesses in this area. And I will go ahead and warn Nashville. It'll be some time before Second Avenue is back to normal. And it's not gonna be the three days of the curfew for Second Avenue itself. The curfew is gonna go for four through the river, from James Robertson down to Broadway. The police are gonna take special care with that for the next few days on our partners in the FBI do have a large crime scene to investigate. They need to be able to do that work effectively. Quell now. This morning's attack on our community was intended to create chaos and fear in this season of peace and hope. But Nash, billions have proven time and time again that the spirit of our city cannot be broken. But we're not going to rest until those responsible for this outrageous and cowardly attacks are rocks to justice and the full force of the Metro police and our partners with the FBI and the F are working together to make sure that we will get back to being the safe city that we okay now three people have been hospitalized as a result of the explosion, are in stable condition, and my prayers are with them on their loved ones. Tonight, I've had been able to visit with a four year old girl this morning who was had no injury and with Save. But let's just spend a moment in celebration of the six uniforms Metro police officers from our central precinct who are at the scene at the time of the black. These incredible heroes who ran to danger with uncertain outcomes ahead of them were responsible for so many injuries being saved. I've spoken with Chief Drake, and I can report that the officers who were injured by this air recovering well I would like chief drink to come and spend a little bit of valuing officers Hosie, Llewellyn Wells, see Post Topping and Sergeant Miller, who took swift action and directed people away from danger to save lives, even at the time that their own lives would have been in peril their hero, and I am grateful to them and all of national's first responders. This is a year where we understand what first responders mean. Tow our community time and time again, and unfortunately, on Christmas Day, you have another example of that. Now. Several downtown residents whose homes were destroyed by the blast and I am inspired are their resilience, and we have to draw inspiration from them as our city to be resilient once again and you get the resource is to rebuild. And I'm grateful to the Red Cross who's opened an aide shelter at the East Part Community Center for those who have been displaced. Now with that, let me turn this over to the chief and answer questions. I think the message of today as we're going from relief now to resolve to catch those folks and to rebuild our city and one more challenging nationals 2020. But we will get through it, and we're grateful to our first responders and never you know, you see all once again thes officers running into danger to help save lives and injury. It's inspiring on again. Gratitude of our community goes to the chief force And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Chief Drake to come in a little bit more specifically about the heroism. Great heroism of our department. Thank you. Thank you, Mary Cooper. As Mary Cooper stated, these officers acts of terrorism is just tremendous. This morning, they received calls for shots fired. I had no idea what they were responding to once they arrived. Uh, in the area. Uh, they heard an RV giving out a message, Uh, basically saying that it was going thio detonate within a certain timeframe on a countdown. Go on. And, uh, and then it was play music and countdown will start again. Officers immediately began knocking on doors and evacuating residents here not knowing if, uh, bomb was gonna detonate immediately or if it was gonna go off. In the time that it was stated thes officers didn't care about themselves. They didn't think about that. They cared about the citizens of Nashville on they went in and we'd be talking not about the, uh, debris and that we have here, but also maybe potential people. So with that said, the officers saved lives today and their terrorism to be noticed. Her Do you believe that either the lift headquarters or they 20 data center might have been targets of this explosion? We don't know. The investigation is continuing. We don't know the motive at this time, but we're following up on all available leads there. Any time. It all why this does the regional believe that this game was chosen? We don't have anything at this time. We're following up on every lead that we can. Why? Christmas morning? We had no idea. It was a total surprise. In fact, when I was briefed this morning, I thought maybe it was gonna be a propane explosion explosion from an R V. And it turned out to be untenable act. But we're gonna follow up on every lead. We're following up on tips that come in. Now, that's a continue investigated efforts going to be. We have found tissue that we believe could be remains. I just have that examined. And it will David to let you know from employing cheap power. Those crowns. I'm sorry. So where that was? Okay. Speak to where that was found. If it's believed that it might ideology Well, there are b was detonated, So if it was someone inside. We have no idea of such a large explosion, but the investigations continue in depth, uh, matter all over the area down there. So we'll continue to examine that to see if it is human remains. You have an estimate on how many days? Right now, it's no known fatalities that we know. Do you have an estimate on how many people you're officers were able to save? What you got way believe could be the beef uncertain. We have to examine it on once we know for sure that Z and then we'll let everyone know that we're investigating it. You receive any information, right? Take the city in the categories, anything. It just we have not received any threats whatsoever as total total surprise. As as I said when we got to call when I got the call this morning, I thought it was gonna be a camper. Someone was trying to keep warm a gas leak and it was an explosion. Asai got more updates. That's when I found out it was intended way had no pre warnings at all. What do you make of the timing of this being that there are no people out on the street at six. In the morning and that it happened with the announcement playing in advance. E don't want to speculate, but you would think that this person didn't want to harm people that maybe he just wanted Thio destroy. But we're not sure until we get further into the investigation. She called 911 Why? There's obviously 77 have had their mind 11 knocked out because of Do you think that was the relation here with the intention to not We're not sure right now. We're following up on that. We're where we did have some services. Go down. We did have a TNT go down just a little while, but that's back up now. So say anything more of these regulations way for just now, we're gonna ask Chiefs watch from Metro Fire to come and give an update. Okay, that's good. Good evening. I know there's a lot of questions unanswered questions that we have questions we can't answer right now. But some of the things we do want to talk about we talk about our public safety and fire and Police Office of Emergency Management. The things that we do operate off of the lift method movie, life safety, incident, stabilization and property conservation. And so currently, right now we've way. No, we've done a sweep of all the buildings and try to make sure that we clear that there is no personnel that are in the buildings. We've done all the hazards hazmat sweeps and all the things that you would imagine if it is a dirty bomb or something of this nature. Now we have our urban search and rescue teams in that way that we can sure abilities. We've got a structural engineers there to make sure that again that the buildings are sound enough to actually be able to enter in and out of them. So again, there's a lot of moving parts on. I know there's a lot of questions that again that we're trying to answer. But at this point is that so many moving parts, so again way just wanna take our heads off to all the first responders on all the job that has been done in the city, especially right now with the infrastructure in the situation, it is all the partners that we have in local federal working together to make sure that, as the mayor said, we're a resilient city and we'll keep moving. Thank you. Any idea how many people were evacuated? We're actually That's a great question. And we're working on that because the way units are designed and we're trying to get an accurate head count. But I can tell everyone of Red Red Cross is partner with us on. We have m t a r. We go bust is set up throughout the city. So if there's anybody that this place will take him to the east part community center and from there we'll make sure that they have a place to stay for tonight or for as long as needed. There to sing hundreds to say hundreds. Like I will say, many people that may be placed. I'm sorry. I'm gonna put a number to it. But way know that there are people that are displaced. You speak of the structural integrity of the buildings downtown. Given the explosion. Is that part of the reason why there's a curfew for the next few days in case anything collapse? Absolutely so that the Office of Emergency Management, when we try to look at the overall view of the city and making sure that everything is safe and working together. The we know we had one building collapsed due to the the explosion and due to the age of the other buildings and then we had water was being actually displayed throughout the buildings and with cold weather. We think the water departments were making sure that they've got the water shut off. But still, the integrity of those buildings are in questions. So we're trying to make sure way do have everybody in place and safety for all personnel. E was that I don't have that address. I'm sorry. Business was inside residential. Yeah, it was. It was a building that actually house across from the explosion, which above the it was residential above. So I can't really give you that. I'm sorry. Alright, guys. Thank you. Br last question for this evening. I want to thank you guys for coming out. We will be in touch with you with regular updates again. Thank you to Mayor Cooper, Chief Swan and Chief Drake for being here. And especially to those officers that we are so grateful for this evening. We'll hear from us again. All right. Thank you. Can you give me their names? Do you have a car Versions? No, definitely not. Therefore ready for here. Okay. Right now. Yeah. Cameron? Yeah. Come here. Wait. They were I didn't get the air. Okay, I will have to take a crap e Take that. That I'm operating on that. Can you call them and let them dio reports and generating until the rest of you Wait. Actually. Really good like that? Look, because we're just gonna dio kind yeah, home. Thank you, Michael. For me? Yeah. Hold on. Let me finish this text. The doctor Just take a way to go, man. Yeah, but I need a dio Uh, no, Leave it altogether. The leg of hard about Hello for the first university. Just like all right now? Yeah, Yeah, he fell. Colorado actually expected from his calculations. Well, then I go. So many. Should we not used to have a camera over there? They can do it. Yeah, Zoo. Yeah, it's too much. Thio, lead us