Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building - Bombing

Bombing

At 9:02 A.M. on April 19, 1995, a Ryder rental truck, containing approximately 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, destroying a third of the building and causing severe damage to several other buildings located nearby. As a result of the massive explosion, 168 people were killed, including 19 children, and over 800 others were injured. It was the deadliest terrorist attack, with the most property damage, on American soil before the September 11 attacks. It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.

Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of the attack in a jury trial and was sentenced to death. He was executed in 2001. A co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, is serving multiple life sentences in a federal prison. Third and fourth subjects, Michael Fortier and his wife Lori, assisted in the plot. They testified against both McVeigh and Nichols in exchange for a 12-year prison term for Michael Fortier and immunity for Lori. Fortier was released into the witness protection program in January 2006.

McVeigh said that he bombed the Murrah building on the two-year anniversary of the Waco Siege in 1993 to retaliate for US government actions there and at the siege at Ruby Ridge. Before his execution, McVeigh said that he did not know a day care center was in the building and that, had he known, "It might have given me pause to switch targets." The FBI said that McVeigh scouted the interior of the building in December 1994 and likely knew of the day-care center before the bombing.