9:02 a.m. and After, April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City Bomber Flees Bombing Scene

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, having just set a massive fertilizer bomb to explode in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), executes his getaway plan, which centers around a Mercury Marquis (see April 13, 1995) parked near the Murrah Federal Building, the target of the bomb. McVeigh is almost into a parking lot when the bomb goes off. The wall of the building on his left comes down, and he is struck by falling debris in the left leg. He steps over a fallen power line and removes ear plugs he has been wearing. He crosses Broadway and is seen by a woman exiting a shop; he shakes his head at her as if to say he does not know what has happened. He turns right on Broadway and 7th, walks a quarter of a block, crosses NW 7th Street, and walks north along an alleyway before turning east on 8th Street. He crosses a set of railroad tracks, approaching the building where he parked the Ryder truck containing the bomb (see April 15, 1995). According to one source, a mail delivery man approaches McVeigh and says, “Man, for a second I thought that was us that blew up!” McVeigh reportedly replies, “Yeah, so did I” and keeps walking. (The source for the mailman’s statement is a document purportedly created by the McVeigh legal defense team—see February 28 - March 4, 1997; other reporters will try and fail to corroborate the statement.) McVeigh checks over the Mercury for damage, gets in, and starts the car; it takes about 30 seconds to start. He lets it warm up for another 30 seconds, by which time he can hear sirens approaching. After briefly working with the transmission, the car lurches into gear and he pulls out slowly, driving through the alleyway to Oklahoma Street, a one-way southbound street. He manages to get onto Highway 235 to Interstate 44, then finally to I-35 north. He is captured by a state trooper less than 90 minutes later (see 9:03 a.m. -- 10:17 a.m. April 19, 1995). [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 272]