When he arrived, he heard no shots. While investigating, Officer Brenna Hosey arrived to support him.
“As soon as he got out of the car, almost immediately, the RV started making an announcement,” Luellen, a three-year veteran of Nashville police, told reporters Sunday. “Somewhere along the line, you don’t quote me exactly, but,‘ There’s a big bomb inside this vehicle. Your main goal is to evacuate “.
“I wasn’t quite sure what I was hearing, so I looked at Agent Hosey just to check that we had heard the same thing,” he said. “And then it started again.”
Shortly afterwards, that RV would explode, dropping Luellen from behind, damaging dozens of businesses. and injuring three people, but not before Nashville agents went door-to-door to ensure that nearby residents could not be harmed.
At a press conference on Sunday, five of these six officers gave first-hand accounts of that morning, what they saw and what they experienced, from the disturbing messages broadcast by the RV and their efforts to save lives, until the shock of the explosion and the fear of his fellow officers.
“This will unite us forever, for the rest of our lives,” Officer Wells said.
“We move as fast as possible”
After the RV’s message began to play, Luellen said he alerted Sgt. Miller, who said he got everyone out of there. Luellen requested all available units.
“By the tone of his voice, we knew it was serious,” said Wells, who was with Topping.
“We got there as fast as we could, not knowing that the vehicle in question was the RV,” he said. “At that point, in fact, we threw her in front.”
When officers arrived at the scene and waited for the bomb squad to arrive, Sipos and Hosey entered an apartment building and began knocking on the doors. Sergeant. Miller also arrived and told officers to move their vehicles to a more strategic position before they joined the others to go door-to-door. Meanwhile, Topping was staying on the street to keep pedestrians away.
“Between me and all the other officers knocking on the doors I think we made contact with six or seven families,” Sipos said.
Soon, the RV’s message became a countdown, announcing that the vehicle would detonate.
“That’s when we heard the 14-minute detonation announcement,” Hosey said, “so we move as fast as we can.”
After cleaning the first building, officers began heading south, Sipos said. They arrived at another apartment building, but did not contact anyone.
Luellen informed them that once again, the RV message had changed and he was now playing a song. He said an ATF agent later helped him identify him as “Downtown” by Petula Clark.
Soon, it changed again, officials said. The detonation was three minutes away.
“I literally hear God”
The RV had all the windows covered, said Luellen, who had looked for a license plate outside but found none. At one point, Wells said he saw a camera above the RV’s rearview mirror.
“It looked like whoever was behind was watching,” he said. “It seemed weird to me. All the police language you hear about the spidey senses, about the hair standing on the back of my neck. All of that went through my body.”
Wells returned to his vehicle to obtain heavy plates for additional protection. He started walking towards the RV, he said, when “I literally feel God telling me to turn around and check Topping.”
Topping was also walking towards the others, but he said something told him to change direction and head for Wells.
Then he said, “I just saw the biggest flames I’ve ever seen, the biggest explosion. I just saw orange and … I felt the heat, the wave.”
“I will never forget the windows that were broken after the explosion that surrounded me,” he said. “It looked like a big prop from a movie scene, all the glass was breaking at once.”
Luellen, who had just told a man he was walking his dog to save himself, said he was knocked to the ground by the blast. Sipos, who was removing equipment from his patrol car, was thrown into the trunk. Hosey lunged forward, but was caught.
Topping ran straight to Wells. They grabbed each other and locked themselves in a door for safety.
“I was so scared I just lost every detail,” he said.
“Christmas will never be the same”
Everyone was fine, even though Wells suffered a temporary hearing loss in one of his ears, he said. The paramedics wanted to take him to the hospital, but when he heard that three people were injured, he said he told them to take them.
But there was still work to be done.
Meanwhile, Luellen checked the man with his dog before checking on his fellow officers and running towards the trash. He found four more people coming out of a building with which officers could not initially contact and told them to leave the area.
“I was trying to make sure all of our people were okay and then I would go from there,” Hosey said. He focused on keeping anyone safe who had not left the area of the explosion or had someone return.
“We just spent time keeping residents who had gone outside as well as pedestrians … keeping them away from the area,” Sipos said.
But after his experience, Wells said he feels lucky to be alive, but that he was also inextricably linked to his colleagues.
“The love for them is even greater now,” Wells said of his fellow officers. “Christmas will never be the same for any of us.”