The time was 6:25 a.m. on Christmas morning. Nashville police worked quickly to clear 2nd Avenue North downtown, the stretch that houses the entertainment district. Officers can be seen walking past B.B.King’s Club as they evacuated buildings. As they moved down the sidewalk, holiday music from a store mixed with the eerie recording coming from a white RV parked on the street.
“Evacuate now. Stay clear of vehicle. Stay clear of vehicle,” the recording blared into the crisp morning air.
“That’s so weird. That’s like some s**t out of a movie,” Officer Sipos said to a fellow officer. ”Like ‘The Purge’?” she replied.“Yeah,” he said.
The officers initially responded to a call of shots fired in the area. When they arrived, they quickly realized something strange was going on. They called in the bomb squad and started pulling back, now well aware of exactly where the mysterious RV was parked, right next to a critical AT&T facility.
The explosion sent debris flying blocks away. The officer’s body cam captured the sound of falling glass raining from the sky.
It also captured a desperate plea on the officers’ radios for them to go through a roll call to make sure all were accounted for after the blast.
