NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A man and his dog were out for a walk early Christmas morning.
“At 6:30 in the morning, you know, there’s not a quieter time downtown than Christmas morning… I noticed there were police cars at each corner with their lights on. And the guy from the 21C hotel was running outside the building and saying we’ve got to evacuate.”
Caught on camera, you can see an officer talking to David Malloy, potentially saving him and his dog from harm.
“The officer was in the middle of the road on 2nd Avenue, walking towards me telling me to evacuate, when I said, ‘why do I need to evacuate’ and then boom, the bomb went off,” recalled Malloy.
Not injured, but shaken up.
“We were really fortunate that we didn’t get hurt and of course myself and the officer and the other two officers like I said standing out there, the gentleman I was talking to, we were okay, but obviously scared the crap out of us,” recalled Malloy.
Malloy recalling what he saw in the aftermath of the explosion.
“It happened, boom, and windows were blown out everywhere and the building right next to ours all their windows blew out, top and bottom, everything.”
The man hearing the warning from the RV, but he thought it was a message of safety and not danger.
“The recording I was hearing I just assumed it was coming from a police car, which I didn’t know that they could do that with a police car, but it was saying something to the effect of do not approach this vehicle, stand away, and it wasn’t like super loud enough for me to make out that and then,” said Malloy.
The white flash, the explosion.
“I checked our alley cameras in our back door, actually blew wide open, and I realized a little later that all the back doors of the buildings behind us, some of them are still wide open,” said Malloy.
As for Malloy’s dog?
“She was fairly unfazed by it, I’m hoping that she’s okay.”
Malloy grateful for living to tell the tale.
“So lucky, are you kidding me? Debris and glass all everywhere, and it’s my Christmas miracle I’ll tell you that.”