AG Merrick Garland marks 28 years since Oklahoma City bombing

April 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland marked the 28th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing Wednesday.

"Today, we remember the 168 people, including 19 children, whose lives were taken and the hundreds who were injured. We send our deepest condolences to the families who are still mourning an unspeakable loss," Garland said in a statement.

"Here at the Justice Department, we recommit ourselves to doing everything we can to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again," Garland continued.

On the morning of April 19, 1995, anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh parked a rented Ryder truck loaded with ammonium-nitrate fertilizer and diesel outside of the Alfred P. Murrah building in downtown Oklahoma City. McVeigh activated the bomb's fuses and left the scene in a getaway car. At 9:02 a.m., the truck exploded.

Shortly after the bombing McVeigh was pulled over for an unrelated offense and taken into custody. Within days, authorities identified the rear axle of the Ryder truck McVeigh had used and traced it back to the rental location where employees described McVeigh.

Authorities soon made the connection between the bombing and the man they already had in custody.

Ultimately McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the accomplice who helped him construct and test bomb materials, were convicted.

Nichols received a life sentence for his role in the bombing.

Tim McVeigh was convicted on 11 counts, including eight counts of murder of federal agents and using a weapon of mass destruction and was executed at the Terre Haute Penitentiary on June 11, 2001. It was the first federal execution since 1963.

McVeigh had become involved with the radical right in the early 1990s, often traveling to gun shows. In letters published shortly before his execution, he described the bombing as a "retaliatory strike" against the government for police raids, specifically the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, that ended with a fire that killed dozens of members of the sect.

"I chose to bomb a federal building because such an action served more purposes than other options," McVeigh wrote. "This bombing was meant as a pre-emptive (or pro-active) strike against these forces and their command and control centers within the federal building."