MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The driver of a box truck stopped by law enforcement in Middle Tennessee after people reported hearing a message similar to one heard in Nashville before a recent bombing has been charged.
A highway in Middle Tennessee was shut down Sunday as law enforcement investigated the box truck. However, WKRN in Nashville reported just before 4 p.m. that no explosives were found on that truck.
According to a release fro the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, driver James Turgeon, 33, of the Murfreesboro area, was charged with two counts of felony filing a false report and one count of tampering with evidence Sunday night.
Detective Sgt. Steve Craig said patrol deputies responded to a call of the driver playing the audio loudly outside the Crossroads Market in Walter Hill. “During the course of the investigation, it was revealed Turgeon made a similar announcement at Kings Chapel Independent Missionary Baptist Church at Jefferson Pike and Dunaway Chapel Road while church was in service,” Craig said.
Rutherford County dispatchers received a call around 10:30 a.m. that a truck parked at a convenience store was heard playing the audio. The driver left and made it to Wilson County before officers made a traffic stop, according to the release. Nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution.
According to news reports and recordings of the Nashville incident, a recorded message was heard coming from a parked RV just before a Christmas Day blast. The message warned people to evacuate.
The area is southeast of Nashville and about three and a half hours east of Memphis.
Police on Saturday began searching a home in rural Antioch, Tennessee in connection to the bombing. Sunday, they identified a person of interest in the case.