There are children in this world just like conrad and i cant even imagine anything like this happening again. Suddenly, there was a man with his arm around my neck and a gun to my head. I shoved my purse into his chest and i said jesus save me. And the bullet shot me right in the head and i went down. Lord jesus. Oh my god. It came out of nowhere, a sweet stay at home mom from a Strong Family of faith shot point bank at her own garage door. My dad is like collapsed on the ground. It was very traumatic to see,
very emotional time. Her survival seemed like a miracle. I didnt know if i would live. Was this some awful random crime or did someone want her dead . That was mystery number one. Someone was out there. Yeah. We were scared. Mystery number two . A secret 1600 miles away. There were several Text Messages. Just slowly snowballing. It was like a punch in the gut. And mystery number three. Im mean. Im going to hurt you. Who would they turn out to be . Like dang, what did this lady do . Faith, temptation, and a twist the size of texas. Lets be very clear, Justice Needs to be served. I dont think it has been. Carrollton, texas north of dallas is where the upwardly
mobile go to by dreams. The schools are good, golf courses got the landscape and churches are more u bictous than starbucks. There is not a lot of Violent Crime in the area. Great area to raise kids and a family. Safe neighborhood. For sure. But travel east 100 miles or so and you enter the piney woods of east texas. Jobs are not as plentiful hear, dreams are deferred and some keep bail bondsmen on speed dial. All the people were dealing with are poor. There is a lot of drugs and meth out there. Different cultures, worlds apart and yet, one summer those two worlds collided in the most unlikely way. This is the story of that summer when money seemed to fall like ticker tape on the piney woods and a carrollton family experienced the kind of Violent Crime that had always happened somewhere else. Help me. Help me. Help me. I need you to call me immediately. Your mom is not hospital with a gunshot wound. Im sorry, what . Its we look at each other, michael and i say we cant make this up. Our story begins in august 2012. Can you believe it . 100 degrees again this afternoon. It was the kind of heat that melts asphalt. It has everyone searching the sky for some sign of mercy but in carlton, 52yearold frank howard wasnt sweating it. Frank was an accountant. His life was good, and Getting Better by the day. I took on a new client and that would have been probably in 2009. Very wealthy client. Yes. What did that come along with, the perks . The wealthy client had his own airports so i guess for the first time probably flying around in private planes and go
to cowboy games. As they say in texas, frank howard was standing in high cotton. I was still the same old guy but it was definitely doing some fun things, as well. Frank had come a long way since his days as a preachers son growing up in south central, texas. Very conservative upbringing. You know, there was no drinking and cussing. Never been to the dance. You know, the school prom. Never did any of that kind of stuff, but at the same time, you know, wanting to be just very down to earth, very honest and try to be the best person you can be. Solid values to last a lifetime, but it wasnt all smooth sailing. In college, frank had a brief marriage that ended in divorce. Eventually, he fell in love with a girl from his church. Her name was nancy shore. A brunette with dazzling blue eyes. It was a great time. You know, i still look back at that and think it was a good time. Franks father married the
happy couple in 1983 and two years later they had their first child a daughter they named ashley. That wasnt an easy birth. No. There were problems. Yeah, yeah, there were complications. She spent the first ten days of her life in the neo natal unit at the hospital. It was a close call but one that seemed to deepen and enrich the couples faith. Soon, the family grew to include a son, jay, and another daughter breanna. Growing up was great. I had a wonderful older sister and older brother who had kind of helped guide me through stuff and obviously, wonderful mom and dad. Eldest daughter ashley says whatever the Howard Family did, they did together. Both our parents did choir in church. Any time they needed a family, oh, get the howards. They will come. Bring all the kids. We were, you know, always together. Always a family. We went to all of their events. They were busy always doing something. I mean, whether it was, you know, soccer or, you know, anything in the fine arts. In fifth grade i was in a play and my dad actually played my dad and i actually loved that. He was always a bible study leader so a lot of the guys my age were like your dad is so cool. Hes really not. You guys sound like leave it to beaver. We joke we were the cleavers. Breanna was beaverly. We had family howard game night. Absolutely. But by 2012, those days were gone. Frank and nancy were now empty nesters. Ashley and her brother jay were each married and on their own. Breanna was in college in nashville. You were so close with your kids. Was it hard as one by one they started leaving the nest and going off to college . Sure, yeah, it was. Im proud of them. It was difficult. I mean, change is difficult. Now nancy was often home alone. Franks work with his new client a wealthy defense contractor had him traveling to florida, california, even kuwait. There was a little bit more freedom or whatever and like i said i lot of it was work and she was sitting at home. Still, nancy had her faith and Church Activities to fill the empty hours. In fact, thats where she had been the evening everything changed for the Howard Family. It was a saturday night august 18th, 2012. Youre out of town . Yes. You get a call. Yes. That something horrific has happened to nancy. Theres been a robbery at your own house . Yes, i was just just beside myself. I didnt know, you know, what was happening. And so began one of the longest nights of Frank Howards life. Coming up. God help me. Yes, maam. Help me. A harrowing cry for help. Terror was at the door. Im like our mother . That just makes no sense. Almost like it wasnt real. Yeah, like it wasnt real. Thats when i found out that something had happened. I was crying and just going crazy. When the carrollton plot continues. Carrollton plot continues. Gh, you know how i feel. Breeze drifting on by you know how i feel. Its a new dawn. If youve been taking copd sitting down, its time to make a stand. Start a new day with trelegy. No oncedaily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. With three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. It also helps prevent future flareups. Trelegy wont replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking it. Do not take trelegy more than prescribed. Trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, very good day to you. Im richard lui we. Were getting to a press conference in nashville after an explosion of an rv. Lets listen in. Evidence shows the Early Morning explosion was ade a deliberate bomb being set off in the community. 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 there
were not more casualties and thats an amazing thing that there were not particularly when people begin to see the devastation on Second Avenue to relief there were not more casualties to now anger and determination and resolve and a resolve to be, to rebuilt and not to be deterred and to bring whoever was responsible for this to justice. Now, ive spoken with governor lee who is working with us to have a decoloration, a Civil Emergency both with the state and then for tema to work with fema to bring all possible resources to commence to rebuilding Second Avenue. To go forward, not be deterred by this and im grateful to the state and federal partners to help this important part of nashville rebuild and come back. There are 41 at least separate
businesses that are materially damaged by this blast. There will be others as we see the full extent of this but already, you can tell that its going to need special help, special resources and im grateful to the start partnering with us to commit to rebuilding second. Now, i want to stand with the down town residents and our Business Owners for whom this was a terrible day, but we are like nashville has faced other challenges particularly this year, we can rebuild and get back to normal. Now, as announced earlier, metro is 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 at 8628600 to be able to manage
coming back to your facilities safely but in the meantime, the curfew area is going to provide safety and security for businesses in this area and i will go ahead and warn nashville it will be sometime before Second Avenue is back to normal. It is not going to be the three days of the curfew for Second Avenue itself. The curfew is going to go from fourth to the river to James Robertson down to broadway. The police are going to take special care with that for the next few days and our partners at the fbi do have a large crime scene to investigate and they need to be able to do that work effectively and well. Now, this mornings attack on our community was intended to create chaos and fear in this season of peace and hope, but nashville people have proven time and time again the spirit of our city cannot be broken but were not going to rest until those responsible for this outrageous and cowardly attack are brought to justice and the
full force of the metro police and our partners with the fbi and the atf are working together to make sure that we will get back to being a safe city that we are. Now, three people have been hospitalized as a result of the explosion are in stable condition and my prayers are with them and their loved ones. Tonight i was able to visit with a 4yearold girl this morning who was had no injury and was saved but lets just spend a moment in celebration of the six uniformed Metro Police Officers from our central precinct who were at the scene at the time of the blast. These incredible heroes who ran to danger with uncertain outcomes ahead of them were responsible for so many injuries being saved. I have spoken with chief drake
and i can record the officers injured by this are recovering well. Id like chief drake to come evaluating the officers who took swift action and directed people away from danger to save lives even at the time that their own lives would have been imperil d imperilled. They are heroes and im grateful to them and all of nashvilles First Responders. This is a year we understand what First Responders mean to 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 by their resilience and we have to draw inspiration from them as our city to be resilient once again and to get the resources to rebuild and im grateful to the red cross who opened an aid shelter for those displaced. With that, turn me turn this over to the chief and answer questions. I think the message of today is we are going from relief now to resolve. To catch those folks and to rebuild our city and one more challenge in nashvilles 2020 but well get through it and were grateful to our First Responders and never, you know, you see all once again, these officers running into danger to help save lives and injury. Its inspiring. And again, the gratitude of our Community Goes to the chiefs force and with that id like to turn it over to chief drake to comment a little more specifically about the hero wisdom, the great hero wisdom of the department. Thank you. Thank you, mayor cooper. Mayor cooper stated, these officers acts of heroism are tremendous. This morning they received calls for shots fired. Have no idea what they were responding to. Once they arrived in the area, they heard an rv giving out a message. Basically saying that it was going to detonate within a certain time frame and countdown would go on and then it was playing music and the countdown would start again. Officers immediately began knocking on doors and evacuating residents here not knowing if the bomb was going to de g ting immediately or in the time stated. These officers didnt care about themselves and think about that. They cared about the citizens of nashville. They went in and we wouldnt be talking about debris that we have here but also maybe potential people. So with that said, the officers saved lives today and their heroism is to be noted. Do you believe either the lyft headquarters or at t data
center were at ttargets . We dont know the mowtive but following up. Is there any timing chief, at all, why this happened Christmas Morning . Anything to lead you to believe this day was chosen in particular for this to happen . We dont have anything at this time. Were following up on every lead we can. Why Christmas Morning, no idea. It was a total surprise. When i was briefed this morning, i thought maybe it was going to be a propane explosion from an rv and it turned out to be an intentional act. Well follow up on every lead and following up on tips that come in now so well continue our investigative efforts. Have you found human remains in the debris. We found tissue we believe could be remains and well have that examined and then well be able to let you know from that point. [ indiscernible question ] i cant hear you . Do you believe it might be someone in the. A r. V. The r. V. Was detonated and it was such a large explosion. There is matter all over the area down there so well continue to examine that to see if it is human remains. [ indiscernible question ] right now fatalities. Human tissue . We believe. Could be. To be for certain, we have to examine it and once we know for sure, well let everyone know but were investigating it. Have you received any information of threats leading up to the city in the coming days, anything to lead you to believe that this was something that was coming . We have not received any threats whatsoever. As total surprise as i said. When we get the call, when i got
the call this morning, i thought it was going to be a camper. Someone was trying to keep warm. Gas leak and explosion. As i got more updates, thats when i found out it was intentional. We had no prewarnings at all. What do you make of the timing of this being that there are no people out on the street at 6 00 in the morning and that it happened with the announcement playing in advance . Yeah, i dont want to speculate but you would think that this person didnt want to harm people that maybe just wanted to destroy but were not sure until we get further into the investigation. Chief, can you talk about the 911 impact by this . Several cities had their 911 systems knocked out because of this. Do you think that was the relation here . The intention to knock out 911 services . Were not sure. Were following up. Were aware we did have some services go down and at t went down for a little while. Thats back up now. To say anything more would be speculation. Im going to ask for that to
be last question for chief now. Well ask chief from metro fire to give an update. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. I know there is a lot of questions and Unanswered Questions that we cant answer right now but some of the things we do want to talk about when we talk about Public Safety and fire and police and Office Emergency management, the things that operate off the lift method and so currently right now we know weve done a sweep of the buildings to try to make sure we cleared, that there is no personnel that are in the buildings and weve done all the hazmat sweeps and all the things that you would imagine if it was a dirty bomb or something. Now you have urban search and rescue teams to sure up the buildings and structural
engineers there to make sure again that the buildings are sound enough to actually be able to enter in and out of. So again, its a lot of moving parts and i know theres a lot of questions that again, were trying to answer but at this point, its so many moving parts. Again, we want to take our hats off to the First Responders and the jobs that have been done in the city and especially right now with the infrastructure in the situation it is. All the partners in local, federal working together to make sure as the man said, were a resilient city and will keep moving. Thank you. Do you know how many people were evacuated . Thats a great question and working on that because the way units are designed and were trying to get an accurate head count. What i can tell everyone, the red cross is partnered with us and we have mta or buses set up throughout the city so if there is anything thats displaced,
well take them to the East Park Community Center and from there, well make sure they have a place to stay for tonight or for as long as needed. Fair to say hundreds . Hundreds . I would say many people that may be the place. Im sorry, i wont put a number to it there are people that are displaced. Can you speak to the Structural Integrity of the buildings downtown . Is that part of the reason why there is a curfew for the next few days in case anything collapses . Absolutely. So the office of Emergency Management we try to look at the overall view of the city and make sure everything is safe and working together, we know we had one Building Collapse due to the explosion and due to the age o