Oklahoma City bombing

Oklahoma City bombing

The Oklahoma City bombing occurred at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The weapon used was a rented Ryder truck containing about 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer, and nitromethane, a highly volatile motor-racing fuel. Timothy McVeigh was arrested by Oklahoma state police the day of the explosion. In his trial, the United States Government asserted that the motivation for the attack was to avenge the deaths of Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas, whom McVeigh believed had been murdered by the Federal government. The explosion occurred on the anniversary of the Waco incident.

168 people were killed in the bombing, which made it the worst terrorist attack on United States soil prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The remains of the half-destroyed Federal building were demolished in May 1995. The site of the Murrah building is now occupied by a giant memorial which includes a large reflecting pool, two large "doorways", a museum, and a field full of chairs, one for each person lost. Some legislation was also introduced in response to the attack, notably the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.

On February 19, 2001 an Oklahoma City bombing museum was dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center.

Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 on May 27, 1998 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.

Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the bombing. He was executed by lethal injection at a U.S. penitentiary in Indiana in 2001.

An accomplice named Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter.

See also: terrorist incidents, Timothy McVeigh