nobody is going to go and drive a truck downtown on the city and blow up the bomb just doesn't happen to see, you know, firefighters who do this for a living who trained for all these scenarios that that's their first jaw drops a little bit of the eyes light, and it's just my God, How did this happen in this area? 75 been treated, and this is just on one corner blocking. This isn't a target of Maynooth. On April 19th 1995 an explosion in downtown Oklahoma City killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. That Wednesday morning became a day the city and the entire country would never forget. Meeting at nine o'clock bombing happened at nine, when I recall there were several of us in the meeting room. It shook the building. I mean, it felt like there was the impact on our building were about eight miles as the crow flies from downtown city. The last thing your mind goes to is it could be something that far away, I tell people that's the fastest trip I ever made. From station to downtown. Chris Lei, a 43 year veteran photojournalist with Ko Seo Action. Five News was one of the first on the scene building just gone, and it was so difficult to get your mind around all of the damage and everything that happened week. See smoke rising from downtown and I recall, is kind of a yellowish color. Very strange color. Smoke learned afterward that that's very typical from that type of explosion. That explosion, investigators would later say, came from a bomb created with homemade materials like diesel fuel. It was the equivalent of £5000 of TNT, and it had just been detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Sudden, and it was very severe. Last flying in the building way were sitting at a table probably about four feet away from the window. Knocked a small out of our chairs. Boy like atomic bomb went off the ceiling. Win in the windows came in with a deafening roar. Just dust covered tornadoes. I've covered blood. First of all, there was glass everywhere, and everything you look at has been broken. From what I've seen, a lot of damage from tornadoes, fires, others, other disasters. But this is beyond the realm of comparability, I guess you'd say. Of the 168 people killed, 19 were Children. More than 680 people were injured, some losing limbs. The blast, which originated from a rental truck, radiated for 16 blocks. More than 300 other buildings in the area were damaged or destroyed. We interviewed people who were injured. That sticks with me. I know there was a daycare in the building, so parents air streaming in to find kids. Theo came out and and I saw was his black smoke and everything. And I ran up here. When I saw the Inter Children, we carried these kids out. We held him like they were her own, chaotic enough that they were taking people. The hospital's on in the back of a pickup truck. So it was. There was several hours, and there were before anybody knew who had been taken to hospital. Chris and the rest of the Ko Seo news team stayed at the scene for nearly 24 hours, documenting the event in a time before citizen journalism, cell phones and social media. You realize how important what we do you that this is something that people need to know what's going on, and your ones tell him you're the ones that are out there from line telling them what they need to know. As chaos was unfolding downtown just outside the city, a 27 year old named Timothy McVeigh was pulled over for driving a vehicle without a license plate. During the stop, the trooper noticed McVeigh had a weapon on him after he was tough, Trooper noticed showing from a shoulder holster, then placed him under arrest. He was incarcerated in Noble County Jail on charges France Morning Loathe went to jail because he had a gun without a permit, but they had no idea who he wants, and he was in the Noble County Jail, and somehow the FBI figured out that that was him. Investigators matched the vehicle identification number on the axle of the truck used in the bombing to a specific truck rental company in Kansas. Among other evidence, the owner of the rental company was able to describe McVeigh to a sketch artist. We're doing all our stories about the bombing, and also now we have now we have the suspect. I've seen a lot of police sketches I've never seen what the bat spot on from where the truck was rented. They were able to pretty quickly piece together. You know what he'd done, how he done it and who his accomplices or so that was interesting to see all that. Of course, a lot of that didn't really come out until the trial. Years later, a little over two years later, the trial of Timothy McVeigh and his accused accomplice, Terry Nichols, began in Denver, Colorado. A federal judge determined a fair trial would not be possible in Oklahoma. We had two crews in Denver or we're both trials the entire time, and I spent collectively around six months at the courthouse in Denver. I'm not sure I ever went inside the building because cameras aren't allowed it. We had what they called the bullpen out front, and we did live shots of which people going walking in, walking out and if they would stop and talk to us. He had been through the pits and the gates of hell together, and we were literally now living and holding each other, all of the people and all the pain and all of the trauma that he calls is all right there inside this person that I'm looking at. On June 2nd, 1997 McVeigh was found guilty on 11 counts of murder and conspiracy and was sentenced to death. Prosecutor said McVeigh, a former soldier in the U. S Army, was motivated by a hatred of the government, citing the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidences reasons he wanted to attack the federal building. His accomplice, 40 year old Terry Nichols, was tried twice and given life in prison without the possibility of parole. Nichols was found to have helped McVeigh plan and carry out the attack. Michael and Lori Fortier were also considered accomplices because they knew about the plot and even helped Planet. Michael testified against McVeigh and Nichols in exchange for Lorries immunity. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison but was released on good behavior after serving 10. The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated with courage, determination of people local are even. I debate the word closure. You know, I guess you kind of closed the chapter a little bit. It's the last thing you're gonna do on that particular part of it, but it's certainly not anything. Get over. It's really not anything that you want to forget. You want to remember in a way of trying to make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't recall happiness or anything that the verdict This may get a little bit of moving on to the next phase. Tragedy does not produce goodness, but sometimes tragedy can reveal what is already there. Goodness has been revealed in remarkable depth and dimension. We continue to share the ache and loss that literally hundreds of our city families and their extended families and their broad circle of friends have been experiencing. An open city will always be something that is part of our history. There's a saying now of the Oklahoma standard. Other places want to do it the way we did it in Oklahoma that when things happen, you gather together, band together. It's a terrible thing to be known for nationwide worldwide, but at least to be known for the when something bad like this happened that people gather together and do what they can to fix that arm or good people people. That day of April, the 19th of 1995 Nano to a year, there was angels made that day. Someone were tiny babies. April 19th 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, but it won't be commemorated as usual with concern over the spread of covert 19 the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum announced that the normally public ceremony will be replaced with a special televised program. It will include the traditional 168 seconds of silence and reading of the 168 names of those who were killed. We'll have it once we once we can all get back to normal. But I think it is important to take the time, Remember, And and again, I think maybe this makes it a little or special or real that we're having to deal with another crisis in remembering the way had back there. I'm Alexandra Stone and from all of us here, Dispatches from the middle. Thanks for watching