Nashville police officers who responded to explosion share their firsthand experience Show Transcript set up much of a barricade as we can keep people out. We go inside just before we go inside. Probably about five minutes after we're there. I'd say that the timer then started counting down Officer hosing Officer Wells were the first ones that notice that, uh, in between this I did Look at the RV, notice that all the shades were down and kind of walked around it to see if there was a tag, anything like that to try and get more info. I did not notice one from there myself. Officer Hosie, Wells and Sigh pose went into the building and knocked on all the doors we could to notify as many people as we could that we had a possible, uh, public safety concern and that we needed people to evacuate. We noticed that there was a basement exit, so we asked everyone to go down and out basement. Uh, we essentially made contact with, I believe 67 apartments and ask them to evacuate the rest way. Never got an answer. So we moved outside and try to move down the street. I went north, bound towards the hotel up that way, and Officer Hosie, Sigh, Pose and Wells continued south bound towards the other places from there. Pretty much sometime later, the music started. Uh, and I notified over the air toe. Notify other officers and then after the song it continue. Thio, go back to the announcement for a little while. Uh, after it switched back, I did notice that there was a gentleman and his dog that came out of 2 17 2nd Avenue North. I noticed him. I went up to him to notify. Hey, you need to get inside, notify anyone who can. And please evacuate. Shortly after that explosion went off, I got knocked to the ground. Uh, I immediately got up. Luckily, no injuries. Nothing like that. I noticed Jianlin and shock with his dog. I checked on him, got him inside, uh, went back. Checked on Sergeant Miller who was inside his car at the time. He seemed all right. I opened his door. He was cutting his airbag that went off away. Then I ran down notice Officer Hosie putting out radio traffic and I noticed Officer Well, smart cyp Oh, sorry to my left. At that point, they seemed OK, so I ran forward into kind of debris area. I noticed what appeared to be four people that came out of, I believe, 1 78 2nd Avenue North that we weren't able to get contact with. They seemed in shock and then off what was going on at that time to get their attention, I yelled at him and told them they need to get safety and run. They took off running north, bound on second. I'm not sure where they went from there. Uh, from there I did a quick, quick sweep of the road and everything else. See if I could see anyone else and I noticed that the other cars were on fire in the area. Wasn't sure if possibly they were going to explode, too. So at that time, I pulled back and resource is started coming to us, and I just assisted the best I could with keeping people back from that point. So that's essentially the role I played, and I'm gonna turn it back over. Thank you, Tyler. Yeah. Officer Brenna Hosie was theseventies officer on Second Avenue that morning. Officer Jose is a four year police Department veteran and also assigned to the midnight shift its central precinct officer hosing. Good morning, everyone. I'm Brenna. Um, like Tyler said, we got the shots fired call. So I was going to back him up on Second Avenue North. Um, as he said, As soon as I got there and stepped out of my patrol vehicle, we started hearing the announcements being made. Um, kinda had that confused. Look on. Is this really what we're hearing right now after he notified Sergeant Miller? Um, we're trying to think of the best way of action. We were making sure the entry code worked as soon as, uh, Cyprus showed up, um, he and I started knocking on doors, um, waiting for Sergeant miller and everyone else to arrive on scene. We were able to clear the first floor. And then, uh, Sergeant Miller, in his thinking, had us come back out and move our patrol vehicles to, um, or strategic position. So if we needed to go back to our patrol cars, we wouldn't be affected at all. Um, so I'm giving him credit for that for probably not only saving our lives, but saving our patrol vehicles and the way that he had his positioned. Um, so we go back and start clearing floor by floor on the second Avenue North Apartments. Once we made contact with everyone we could and made sure that they were getting out of the building is when we started to move down, keeping in communication with dispatch, trying to get entry codes for all the Airbnb s that we're on Second Avenue North. Trying to make entry at this point is when we heard the 14 minutes until detonation announcement. So we're moving as quickly as we can. We make it all the way down to second in commerce. Uh, there's actually a B detail officer that I did in contact with that lives in one of those apartments, asking him if he was okay telling him what was going on and then if he could start helping evacuate people out of his building because we did not have access to it at that point. Um, once we made it to the second in commerce, uh, we realized there wasn't much else that we could do once we evacuated and made contact with everybody that we could, um, so I told everyone, it's probably best that we just go back to our vehicles and regroup until the bomb squad gets out there and we figure out what we need to do from there. At that point, we had heard the three minutes until detonation, so myself, Llewellyn and Sigh Post had headed back north. Bound on second. Um, I had made the turn onto Church Street while Tyler went to go talk to Sergeant Miller. And that's when the explosion happened. Uh, I was thrown forward, uh, knocked to the ground. Um, but I was able to catch myself. I was fine. Um, at that point in time, I tried to get the air, but Amanda had beaten me to it, letting everyone know, like or letting dispassionate, Like, what had happened. Um, I made a phone call to a loved one to let him know that I was okay. And then I ran to the intersection to check on Miller and Llewellyn to make sure they were OK. Salts I post running towards the intersection as well. Um, sorry. Uh, that's what I got on the radio to make sure. Well, it was okay. You couldn't get a response from him. Um, but from the blast, he had some hearing loss. Um, so that's when Amanda got on. Said that he was okay. So I was just trying to make sure all of our people were okay and then going from there trying to figure out what was the best course of action. Um, to keep everyone. That was either in the immediate blast area, Um, that we weren't able to evacuate or anyone that was coming in and how to best keep them safe. Okay. No, I'd like to introduce you to Officer James Wells. Also assigned to the Central precinct Midnight shift. James has been with us just under two years. Officer Wells. Good morning. Officer James Wells. Shortly after, uh, shots fired, call came out, Officer welling. I came over the radio, said I needed everybody here immediately and just by the tone in his voice. You know, we knew it was serious, and, uh, you know, he said it was possible bomb situation, and that sergeant mother was aware at the time I was sitting right next to the officer topping. So we got over there as quick as we could, Uh, not knowing that the Harvey was the vehicle in question at the time. We actually pulled right in front of it s. So if this is right across the street, we pulled up and then we heard the announcement. Uh, topping was like, Is that is that the vehicle in question? And Llewellyn said yes. We're merely hop in our cars and backed out and then s when we started setting with the perimeter to start shutting down commerce and Broadway to make sure nobody could come in or out. And then Llewellyn called for more people to come help evacuate the building, which I did A to that point is, when I heard you know, you have 14 minutes to evacuate the area. And at that point is when I started to prepare my mind for, uh, secondary things that happened actually told everybody When we come out to make sure we look at the high ground and the parking garages just desiccation, as I felt like maybe an active shooter might have followed that just because it felt at that moment it felt really, and it felt like there was gonna be some secondary activity. So every time we came out of the building, we make sure that that we were looking around checking high areas, just making sure nobody was peeking around and looking at us. Um, so we continue toe, go door to door, trying to get colds from dispatch to get in way, get down to second of commerce, and that's when we hear the three minutes as we're coming out of the building on. At that point, I told him I was gonna go back to my car and get my heavy plates just mentally getting prepared for whatever was about to happen. And so, as I'm getting putting my heavy place on, Llewellyn tells me that SARS Miller told me to put my car back because I was actually in the intersection at first. So then I put my car back in between the buildings and which is the parking garage and then, uh, second of commerce to get out of the blast radius. And at that point, I get out and I'm starting to go back toward Llewellyn and Hosey and as I'm getting ready to walk toward them, walking back toward the RV and it might not be politically correct, but this is my truth. I literally here, guy, tell me to turn around and go check on Topping, who was by herself down on Broadway and, oh, as I turned around for me, it felt like I only took three steps and then the music stop. And as I'm walking back toward topping now I just see orange and then I hear a loud boom. And as I'm stumbling because it rocked me, that hard to start stumbling, I just tell myself to stay on your feet, stay alive, and I just take out in a full out sprint and I'm running toward topping and make sure she's OK and we kind of meet the middle and we just grab each other, check each other. I'm giving her get her gun out because, like I said, I felt like that was gonna be some just had a feeling that, you know, it's just weird, you know, it just felt like something of a movie. And so we're checking on each other, and she's asking me. She's telling me that they're trying to raise me on the radio. I couldn't hear. So, uh, you just lost temporary hearing in my left ear. So as she yelling, I'm saying what a couple of explicit lives tell it. I couldn't hear and get me to the paramedics to call my wife immediately. Let her know, just before anything got out to let her know that was okay. And while I was in, uh, ambulance. They were trying to get me to go to the hospital, and I just didn't wanna be by myself at that moment. Didn't wanna leave them. And then I heard that there were three people that were injured, so I told paramedics to take care of them. And I was like, I got per policy. I got 10 days to get checked out, so it was like, Y'all go check. Y'all go check on them, go check on the civilians. And then I immediately went to go find Topping. Um, Just kept asking where topping Waas. And and we found her. That was my part in it. Yeah. Officer Michael Cyprus, assigned to the Central Precinct Midnight shift. Michael's been with us also just under two years. Officer Cyprus. Thank you. So I was the believe the third or fourth officer on scene of what at the time was a shots fired Cough. I pulled up in front of the building that the initial call came from. I didn't know what the time I was almost directly across the street from the R V, exited my vehicle, heard it making the announcements, essentially telling us there was explosive device in the vehicle not to approach it, that we should be evacuating the area. At that point, I moved up the street a little bit. Which point I met up with Officer Llewellyn. Officer Hosie. We started making plans to get into the buildings. Start knocking on doors, toe let families know what was going on. Get them out of the building. E don't know the address on the top of my head. But the first building we went into was the one that the initial college come from, Um, between myself and all the other officers knocking on doors. I think we made contact with six or seven families. Informed them the native exit the building to the what would have been the first avenue side to keep them off of the street with the RV. Time after we worked our way through the initial building, knocking on doors way went back outside, at which point we started working our way south bound on Second Avenue North. Unlike these, other officers said, we were, um, in communication with dispatch who did a fantastic job through the whole incident. I'm trying to get door codes to get in and alert more families. I believe we made it into one Mawr apartment building. If I remember correctly, I don't think we made contact with any families in that building. Um, that point Officer Llewellyn, who was outside let us know that the recording had changed. Believe that's when a song started playing. Um, I don't know what the countdown was at that point. I know By the time we made it back outside after the last building we had checked, it was down toe three or four minutes, I believe, Um, at that point, we decided toe work our way back up Second Avenue North Bound Way had decided, like Officer well said toe, get our heavy plates on to prepare for whatever might come after the countdown ended A to that point, I made it back up the church street. I rounded the corner to head towards First Avenue, where my car was parked. Um, I'd actually just popped the trunk on my vehicle toe to get another piece of equipment out. A twitch point. I just felt a push basically was thrown into the trunk a little bit. Turned around to see just, uh, very orange sky. A lot of smoke. Um, which point I I ran back towards Second Avenue North, as all the other officers did. I just wanted to make sure all the officers that I knew were in the area were safe. Like Officer Llewellyn said there were a few people that had come out of an apartment building, so we did our best to get them out of the area as quick as possible. Attn. That point way just spent time keeping residents that had come outside as well as pedestrians that we're just trying to enjoy their morning keeping them away from the area, trying toe carefully explain what was going on. And they just needed to stay away for safety. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Our fifth officer is Amanda Topping. Amanda has been with us for just under two years. Also assigned to the central precincts. Midnight shift. I mean, they got me closing this thing out. Oh, my God. All right, so I remember that morning, I was sitting with James Wells were talking over my zone. I heard Tyler Llewellyn and a friend and go out to the coal. So we're kind of listening is odd call. Um, source in there. And my wife had just called because it's towards the end of our shift. So she was seeing what time I was coming home. And so I'm talking to her and I'm like, Well, we're about to head to this call. It's a little strange. So hung up with her and way head down there and we get there. We didn't really know too much about it. Unbeknownst to us, we park right next to it. So of course we move because that seemed ideal. Um, so you know, I take my car down toe second on Broadway. Um, e you know, Sergeant Miller wanted me to stay down there to help with, you know, pedestrian traffic on Broadway and the bus is we're starting to do their routes and stuff. Um, so of course I was listening and everything, and they went up to the apartments, and I kind of stayed down there and kept on going up to second commerce to hear what RB was saying. That's just stuff that I'll never forget. You know the sound of the announcement saying, You know, primary objective is to evacuate. Evacuate now and it's a female voice and yeah, it's just odd. Uh, And then, of course, you know, I'm kind of pacing back and forth because I kept on half of the turn pedestrians around. Uh, it was a weird feeling not being able to be with everybody else. But I knew that I needed to stay where I was at because, you know, you wanna be with your detail, especially when you just have a feeling something's not right and something that weird just don't get stuff like that. So, um, but I was standing there by my car and I heard Tyler say that music just came on. So I got you know, I tried. I went to go get closer and I heard it, and I was like, Oh, my gosh. So I was about to get on the radio and say, You know, I know it's almost not my place, but like, everybody's getting out of the buildings right we need, like everybody I wanted everybody be safe But then I saw a group of them, which I couldn't really tell. But I was assuming was Brenna and psychos and Tyler walk around the RV back towards their cars. So I kind of saw them. And I started walking up to the second in commerce because I wanted I wanted to talk to them. I wanted to know way need to go to more buildings. What do we need to dio? You know, I was just getting really antsy on. I just talked to my wife again. I just told her that things were just really strange. Ah, and so But as I'm walking towards them on the right side of the road right side a second I see Wells at his car. And I was like, Well, he's closer and go talk to him and see what we need to dio. So I I don't know What told me to do this is really weird, but I decided change my direction, go on the other side of the road, start walking towards Wells. Uhh! So as I start walking towards him, you know he starts walking towards me. Uhh! You could see on the camera to the footage. I've seen it. And I told him I didn't think anybody would ever believe him. How close He Waas And I was probably about 10 steps away from him. 15 and we're just walking towards each other. And I just saw the biggest flames I've ever seen. The biggest explosion, I mean, is and I just saw orange and then him and I saw him stumble, and I felt it. I felt the heat, the wave, and I don't know how I kept my footing, but I kind of blanked that. I couldn't see him for a second and I just lost it. And I just took off in a sprint towards them. Uh, and like he said, I've I've never grabbed somebody so hard in my life, grabbed him. He grabbed me and we just ducked into a doorway because we didn't know what was coming afterwards. And I'll never forget the windows shattering. After the blast. All around me, I kind of looked like a big prop from a movie scene, all the glass breaking at once. Now it hit me all over, and but just being able to hold him and grab him, and then the first thing I could do is you couldn't hear anybody at first. It scared the heck out of me. But, you know, just 4. 23 there's been an explosion and said multiple medics because I didn't know what we had. And I was so scared that I just lost my entire detail because I didn't know where they were. I just saw him passed by it. So after that way, just, you know, make sure that we're felt a little bit safe enough. Thio, go back and regroup. And luckily, I heard everybody on the radio and I didn't know how. Okay, everybody was, But I knew everybody was alive. And so I was happy to hear that nobody else was seriously injured. But that's pretty much it. Yeah. Can I go now? Thank you. Okay. Okay. All right. These officers have agreed to take just a few questions. Uh, please, if you have the specific officer you wanna ask, you identify that or if you don't have a specific officer will try to find the best one. Where the bomb squad waas Metro Bomb Squad Way. Yes. The bomb squad was on the way. The bomb squad have been requested and they were on the way. Uh, ma'am, Right here. Yes. When you describe that there were shades on the on the RB was for their shades in the front as well. Did you ever see a person in or around the early? Yes, ma'am. Uhh. The front has a shade as well. To keep view,