Centennial Olympic Park bombing
The Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a domestic terrorist pipe bombing attack on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, July 27, 1996, during the Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed one person and injured 111 others; another person later died of a heart attack. It was the first of four bombings committed by Eric Rudolph in a terrorism campaign against what he called "the ideals of global socialism" and against "abortion on demand". Security guard Richard Jewell discovered the bomb before detonation, notified Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers, and began clearing spectators out of the park along with other security guards.
| Centennial Olympic Park Bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of terrorism in the United States | |
Bomb fragment mark on Olympic Park sculpture | |
| Location | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Coordinates | 33°45′38″N 84°23′33″W |
| Date | July 27, 1996 1:20 am (EDT) |
| Target | Centennial Olympic Park |
Attack type | Bombing |
| Weapons | Pipe bomb |
| Deaths | 2 (1 directly, 1 indirectly) |
| Injured | 111 |
| Perpetrator | Eric Rudolph |
| Motive | Far-right extremism |
After the bombing, Jewell was initially investigated as a suspect by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and news media aggressively focused on him as the presumed culprit when he was actually innocent. In October 1996, the FBI declared Jewell was no longer a person of interest. Following three more bombings in 1997 and 1998, Rudolph was identified by the FBI as the suspect. In 2003, Rudolph was finally captured and arrested, and in 2005 he agreed to plead guilty to avoid a potential death sentence. Rudolph was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for his crimes.