Date: 19 April 1995

Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States

Type of event: terrorism

Description:

At 9:02 AM a explosion from a truck bomb caused the partial collapse of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The explosion resulted from a 2,000-kg ammonium nitrate/fuel oil bomb in a truck parked in front of the building. The 168 killed included 15 children in a day care center on the second floor, 30 visitors (including 4 more children), one person outdoors, and 3 people in nearby buildings. Injuries numbered 675, including 166 in the Murrah building, 413 in nearby buildings, 60 outdoors, and 36 in unknown locations. One rescue worker also died of injuries sustained during recovery efforts.

Timothy McVeigh was arrested 30 km away at 9:10 AM on a traffic violation and charged with the bombing on April 21. McVeigh held anti-government views and choose the target as a federal building with a BATF office on the second anniversary of the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Outside experts have questioned some conclusions of federal investigators and argue that demolition charges would have had to have been emplaced within the building.

Consequences: 169 killed, 675 injured

References:

• Hoffman, David, The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror, 1998, Feral House (Venice, CA).
• Injury Prevention Service, Oklahoma State Department of Health, "Investigation of Physical Injuries Directly Associated with the Oklahoma City Bombing," on line [http://www.health.state.ok.us/program/injury/okcbom.html].
• Mickolus, Edward F., and Susan L. Simmons, Terrorism, 1992-1995: A Chronology of Events and a Selectively Annotated Bibliography, 1997, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT).

© 2017 by Wm. Robert Johnston.
Last modified 26 November 2017.
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