Oklahoma City bombing
Damage to the Murrah building before cleanup began
The Oklahoma City bombing was an attack against the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, in the street in front of the Murrah building, attackers exploded a rented Ryder truck containing about 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) of explosive material. The bomb was composed of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer, and nitromethane, a highly volatile motor-racing fuel. Timothy McVeigh was arrested by an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman within an hour of the explosion. At 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 agents of the federal government. The attack was staged on the second anniversary of the Waco incident.
In all, 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. Today, the site of the Murrah building is 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 attack.
Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the bombing. He was executed by lethal injection at a U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, June 11, 2001.
An accomplice, Terry Nichols, was sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter. Nichols was set to stand trial on Oklahoma murder charges March 1, 2004. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
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