A devastating domestic terrorist attack occurred when Timothy McVeigh detonated a car bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
The explosion killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured 680 others, making it the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history prior to 9/11.
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The bombing was motivated by anti-government sentiments and retaliation for the federal government's actions during the Waco siege
Although at first suspicion wrongly focused on Middle Eastern terrorist groups, attention quickly centred on Timothy McVeigh—who had been arrested shortly after the explosion for a traffic violation—and his friend Terry Nichols.
Both were former U.S. Army soldiers and were associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement. Two days after the bombing and shortly before he was to be released for his traffic violation, McVeigh was identified and charged as a suspect, and Nichols later voluntarily surrendered to police.
McVeigh was convicted on 11 counts of murder, conspiracy, and using a weapon of mass destruction and was executed in 2001—the first person executed for a federal crime in the United States since 1963.
Nichols avoided the death penalty but was convicted of conspiracy and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison.
Other associates were convicted of failing to inform authorities about their prior knowledge of the conspiracy, and some observers believed that still other participants were involved in the attack.