Oklahoma City: one year later

Baylee Almon - 1994-1995

This week marks the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. On April 19, at 9:02 a.m. last year, a Ryder truck carrying 4,000 pounds of oil and fertilizer exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing 149 men, women and 19 children. The first reports were sketchy.

Around 9:10 a.m., channel 4 news broke into regularly scheduled programming as I made my bed. The first image, taken from far away, showed black smoke billowing from a central area in Oklahoma City. The newscaster said there were reports of a possible gas explosion at a school. I expected this to be an unfortunate freak occurrence and had hoped no one died in the explosion.

I went through the usual morning routine getting ready for school. It would be another twenty minutes before I turned the TV on again to see if live coverage continued. The images to me and to everyone else across the nation were devastating. Hundreds of victims were covered in blood caused by the falling concrete and debris. Some were dazed. Others were crying as firefighters and ambulance crews rushed to tend the injured.

Of all the pictures taken, only one would come to symbolize the tragedy. A picture captured by an amateur photographer moments after the blast of fireman Chris Fields cradling the body of one year old Baylee Almon, whose birthday was the day before. Today, whenever I think about her smiling face plastered across newspapers and magazines, it still puts a lump in my throat.

For the rest of the week, the nation mourned. President Clinton declared that Sunday a National Day of Mourning. Church bells across the country rang at 3 p.m. And we wanted answers. What sick minded individual could commit such a horrendous act? Why did it have to happen in Oklahoma City? Is someone out there capable of this much hate?

As law enforcement officials issued an all-points bulletin describing the two suspects at a live press conference the next morning, agents scoured airports under the assumption it was a terrorist attack from abroad.

No one knew, however, that the perpetrator was already in jail in Perry, Oklahoma on the charge of carrying a concealed weapon. He was arrested an hour and twenty minutes after the bombing. For two days, law enforcement officials didn’t even give the prisoner a second thought until Friday afternoon as he was about to post bail. Took only moments for officials to realize the young man fit one of the FBI’s descriptions.

His name was Timothy McVeigh, who according to Time, served in the army during the Gulf War and failed to qualify for the Armed Special Forces. He had reportedly been agitated over the way law enforcement officials handled the Branch Davidian Siege in Waco, Texas in 1993 and actually visited the site. He was also known to hold right wing politics and claimed the army had implanted a computer chip in his buttocks.

News quickly spread that the atrocious act was committed by one of our own. As the emotionless, stone-faced uncooperative suspect clad in an orange jumpsuit and leg and wrist irons was led outside by officials for a prison transfer, McVeigh was greeted by an angry mob.

“Baby killer,” they shouted. “Kill the creep.” But no one took a shot that day at Timothy McVeigh. Justice would have its day in court.

Two other individuals, Terry and James Nichols, were held in the case as well but only as material witnesses. James Nichols was later released while Terry, along with McVeigh, will stand trial this year in Denver, Colorado.

Whenever a tragedy of this magnitude occurs, it is one so shocking people don’t want to believe one person or persons could commit such an act. Instead, they point to possible conspiracy theories as people have often suggested with the JFK Assassination, Watergate, the O.J. Simpson murder trial and even the fiery end of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas.

Conspiracy theories will no doubt play a major role as the trial of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols nears. Who and where is John Doe number 2, the supposed individual witnesses say they saw at the federal building minutes before the blast? Did he die in the explosion? If not, whose leg was it that was buried with the body of a woman victim as reported in The Dallas Morning News last month. The defense will argue that McVeigh and Nichols were pawns in a much more sinister game. Was it the Michigan Militia, a military force that shares the same anti-sentiments towards law enforcement and the government as McVeigh does?

Last May, the charred skeleton that once was the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was demolished. The pictures seen in a feature article in the March 31 edition of The Dallas Morning News this year speak for themselves. All that remains is an open field blocked off by a chain link fence lined up with wooden crosses. Over dozens of buildings that surrounded the bombsite have yet to be repaired or are vacated.

On April 5 in Oklahoma City, the Clintons dedicated a site across the street from the disaster area that will be the new daycare center. Much has been discussed on what to put in place of where the Murrah Federal Building once stood.

Perhaps it will be a memorial park dedicated to the 168 men, women, and children who lost their lives in a matter of seconds that spring morning. A place for people to come and reflect on a senseless and unprecedented tragedy that happened a long time ago.

©4/17/96