Target Building and Location
Timothy Mcveigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack occurred on April 19, 1995, and targeted a nine-story federal office complex located at 200 N.W. Fifth Avenue in downtown Oklahoma City. The building housed multiple federal agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Social Security Administration, and the Treasury Department. The structure was a reinforced concrete and steel frame building, and the blast focused on the north face, collapsing the entire front section of the building. The attack killed 168 people, including 19 children in the building's daycare center, and injured more than 680 others. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building became the most visible symbol of domestic terrorism in the United States and prompted major changes in federal building security standards across the country. More background on the event is available at the FBI's official Oklahoma City bombing page FBI Oklahoma City Bombing Case.
The bombing destroyed or severely damaged 324 buildings within a 16-block radius, and the blast crater measured approximately 300 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. The explosion was equivalent to roughly 5,000 pounds of TNT, and the shockwave registered on seismographs as far away as Denver, Colorado. The damage forced the permanent closure of several blocks of downtown Oklahoma City, and cleanup and recovery operations took weeks. The federal building itself was demolished in May 1995, and the site was converted into the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, which opened in 2000. The memorial includes the symbolic Field of Empty Chairs, the Survivors' Wall, and the Reflecting Pool, and it draws more than a million visitors annually. The memorial is managed by a private nonprofit organization and receives no direct federal operating funds. The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum provides official visitor and historical information Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
Perpetrator, Motive, and Legal Outcome
Timothy Mcveigh, a former U.S. Army infantry soldier, carried out the bombing with co-conspirator Terry Nichols. Mcveigh was motivated by anti-government extremism and a desire to retaliate against federal law enforcement actions, particularly the siege at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and the Waco siege in 1993. He chose the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building because it housed agencies he viewed as hostile to the militia and sovereign citizen movements. Mcveigh rented a Ryder truck, packed it with a homemade ammonium nitrate and fuel oil explosive device, and parked it in front of the building's north parking garage. The explosion detonated at 9:02 a.m. local time, and Mcveigh was arrested 90 minutes later after a traffic stop by Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Charlie Hanger. Mcveigh was convicted on June 2, 1997, and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001. The U.S. Department of Justice maintains the official federal case docket and execution records Department of Justice Oklahoma City Bombing Records.
Terry Nichols was tried separately and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on December 23, 1997. Michael Fortier, a friend of Mcveigh who knew about the bombing plot in advance, pleaded guilty to failing to warn authorities and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The trial was one of the longest and