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On this day in 1997: Timothy McVeigh was found guilty for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing
Digital Curator
Twenty-nine years ago today, Timothy J. McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
On April 19, 1995, a bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast killed 168 people and injured several hundred others. Among those who died were 19 children.
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Referred to by the FBI as “the worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation’s history,” the OKC Bombing shook the American public’s sense of security. It awakened the country to the dangers of domestic extremism and domestic terrorism.
On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was convicted on 11 counts of murder, conspiracy, and using a weapon of mass destruction. He was later sentenced to death and was executed in 2001.
What happened
On the morning of the bombing, McVeigh, a former Army soldier, parked a rented truck filled with explosives in front of the building, according to the FBI.
As McVeigh got out of the truck, locked it, and headed towards a getaway car, he ignited a timed fuse before igniting another. The powerful bomb exploded at 9:02 a.m., FBI records show.
“Within moments, the surrounding area looked like a war zone. A third of the building had been reduced to rubble, with many floors flattened like pancakes. Dozens of cars were incinerated, and more than 300 nearby buildings were damaged or destroyed,” the FBI’s website dedicated to some of its most famous cases states.
Numerous state, local, and federal agencies responded to the scene and determined that the explosion was caused by a bomb. A third of the federal building was destroyed, and more than 300 nearby buildings had some kind of damage.
In addition to McVeigh, Terry L. Nichols, who was also an ex-Army soldier, was convicted in federal court later the same year. Both McVeigh and Nichols were associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement. McVeigh said he targeted the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to avenge the raid on Waco in Texas.
Nichols was convicted on Dec. 23, 1997, on federal charges of conspiracy and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, and was later sentenced to life in prison. He was also found guilty on state murder charges in May 2004 and was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
The federal building was razed following the tragedy, and a park and a national memorial were built on the site. This year, the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum marks 25 years of remembrance.
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CNN and KOCO contributed to this report.
