OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — On April 19, 1995, a former U.S. Army soldier parked a rented Ryder truck loaded with explosives outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City. The blast at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others in what remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on American soil.
The bombing occurred just two years after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Media and some Americans immediately speculated that Middle Eastern men were the culprits before the FBI later found that two white men were responsible for the attack.
Former U.S. soldier Timothy McVeigh was convicted in 1997 on 11 counts of murder, conspiracy and using a weapon of mass destruction in the explosion. He was executed in 2001.
The followup investigation revealed the explosives were prepared and stored in the Ryder truck in Geary County before the truck was taken to Oklahoma City. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols turned himself in at the police department in Herington, was later convicted on one federal count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, and on state charges in Oklahoma of 161 counts of first-degree murder, first-degree arson and conspiracy. He is currently in federal prison.
National and state law enforcement authorities conducted investigations in the region after the bombing.