Man charged in incident that prompted bomb squad response

Published 8:30 am Friday, January 17, 2020

(AP) — Police in Tennessee have arrested a homeless man following an incident that prompted a bomb squad response and briefly shut down a parking garage outside a hospital in Nashville.

David Charles Hartgrove, 60, was charged Tuesday with attempted arson and aggravated trespassing, news outlets reported, citing police.

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center west parking garage and surrounding streets were closed while a bomb squad investigated the scene and cleared it.

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Officers went to the garage after someone reported seeing a copper wire in the gas tank of a vehicle, with the other end of the wire plugged in to an electrical outlet, a Vanderbilt University Police Department affidavit said.

The affidavit said video showed a man, later identified as Hartgrove, tampering with the vehicle.

A motive was unclear. Authorities say there’s no connection between Hartgrove and the vehicle’s owner or the hospital.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Hartgrove had an attorney.