Oklahoma City Bombing Case Study

The Oklahoma City Bombing happened on April 19, 1995. This terrorist attack was the worst terrorist attack to happen before 9/11. The truck was packed with 4,800-pounds of explosives which consisted of diesel-fuel and fertilizer (ammonium nitrate). The bomb was detonated on April 19, 1995 just outside Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City shortly after 9am (Nacos, 2016). This catastrophic blast killed one hundred sixty-eight people and injured hundreds more (Nacos, 2016). Among all those victims, nineteen children attended a day care located inside the building (Nacos, 2016). Six-hundred fourteen people were also treated from various hospitals and private doctor offices (Krug, Nixon, & Vincent, 1996). This bomb was so powerful it sent a shockwave across the city and destroyed more than 300 buildings in the immediate area (History, 2009). The man who were responsible for this devastating attack was Timothy McVeigh. Timothy McVeigh was a radical anti-government extremist who became against the government after the August 1992 shoot-out between federal agents and Randy Weaver, and the April 19, 1993 inferno near Waco Texas that left 75 members of a Branch Davidian religious dead (History, 2009). McVeigh choose the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building because it housed …show more content…
A massive manhunt happened in North Carolina where his truck was spotted stocking up on supplies. In October 1998, he was officially charged in the three Atlanta bombings. Authorities continued to search for him and Rudolph was even on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives with a $1 million reward for his capture (History, 2009). He spent five years eluding authorities. A police officer found him digging through a grocery store dumpster on May 32, 2003 (History, 2009). He was sentenced to four life terms without the possibility of