Man blown-up in Nashville was my neighbor
Blast was treated as terrorism from the beginning; now not thought to be

The fatal explosion late Tuesday night of a Land Rover SUV near Nashville's Opryland Hotel made the national wires, but this morning not much is being released to the public about the event.

The Tennessean does have a comprehensive story about what it has learned so far, though.

And it turns out that the owner of the SUV, William G. Young, lived a short walk from my house. I did not know him, however, but his son is in the same grade at the same school as my daughter. As daughter is away at church camp, I can't ask her whether she knows the son.

Reports the Tennessean,

The massive explosion ripped apart Young's 2001 Land Rover Discovery at 11:49 p.m. [Tuesday], throwing Young from the driver's seat onto the pavement in front of his car.

A team of Metro, state and federal investigators converged yesterday to find pieces of Young's silvery-gray Land Rover, now mostly a pile of twisted and blackened metal.

They also were looking for clues. There was no note or any obvious explanation for the blast, officials said. However, they said they knew an explosive was used and the car did not erupt in flames because of a mechanical malfunction.

The story also says that while investigators have a good idea what the explosive was, they aren't talking about it. Pieces of the vehicle were scattered over a 75-yard radius. In addition, "A truck was destroyed, and two trailers were damaged" belonging to a construction company, but "Young had no obvious ties to the Opryland area nor to the electrical companies and trailers next to his car," according to a police spokesman.

Jim Cavanaugh is director of the Nashville office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Cavanaugh said intentional explosions usually fit into one of five categories: those set out of greed, revenge, hate, the desire for power, or as a means of escape; but the explosion that killed Young had not been classified.

Cavanaugh said that when bomb squad investigators arrived, they knew that an explosive had detonated. He said there are indicators of the type of explosives used, but he declined to say what those were.

He said it was clear that the explosion was not caused by gasoline in the Land Rover's tank. ...

There were early thoughts that the explosion may have been terrorism-related, said Doug Riggin, special agent in charge of the FBI's Middle Tennessee Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Federal investigators responded that way as a precaution and have been working down from there, Riggin said. However, authorities have interviewed people since the Tuesday night blast and have come across ''other things'' — things that are being kept confidential — that are leading investigators to think there is no terrorism link, Riggin said.

The paper also printed excerpts of the 911 call reporting the explosion.

Young's neighbors, interviewed by the paper,

used terms like "weird" and "very private" in describing the man who died in a vehicle explosion late Tuesday night on a remote part of a hotel parking lot.

Few of the folks who lived on the same Franklin cul-de-sac as William G. Young, 43, seemed to know much about the man who they say had been unemployed for a long time and rarely was glimpsed outside the house. ...

"He was very weird. Not a normal person," said Marcogiulio Piccillo, who lived a couple doors down from the Youngs for about three years. "I have to be honest, we have always been afraid something was going to happen."

Piccillo said one morning he saw Young outside walking his son either to the bus stop or the elementary school, which was fairly close. It was a very cold winter day, but Young was decked out in shorts, flip-flops and sunglasses.

Shortly after Piccillo moved in, he went over to introduce himself to Young. While they chatted briefly, a cat walked over and left a scratch on Young's car. Piccillo recalls Young saying to him: "Don't worry, we'll take care of the cats."

When a cat turned up in the neighborhood with its eyes shot out last year, Piccillo said, he recalled that conversation.

Young and family had lived here since 1999. At 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, after identifying his address, police awakened his neighbors and told them to evacuate their homes. Police were concerned there were other bombs inside Young's house, but there weren't.

Investigators have not determined whether Young's death was accidental, suicide or homicide.

by Donald Sensing, 7/22/2004 07:51:52 AM. Permalink |