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Games go on after day of shock, grief
Bomb investigators report progress
July 28, 1996
Web posted at: 6:30 a.m. EDT
ATLANTA (CNN) -- Olympic athletes and spectators prepared Sunday for competition to continue in the aftermath of the Saturday morning bombing that killed one person and injured more than 100 in the heart of Atlanta's Olympic Ring.
Investigators combed through the bomb site at downtown Centennial Olympic Park -- the social rendezvous for the Games -- and said they believed a breakthrough in the case would come quickly and surely.
There was no word on when the public park that contains corporate venues, concert stages and exhibits would reopen.
Investigators told CNN they are making progress in their search for suspects and that an arrest could be made within days. Officials reportedly were focusing on domestic terror -- the perpetrator(s) was either, in their words, a "nutcase," or someone with a possible militia connection.
Clinton denounced the blast as an "evil act of terror." He described it as "an act of cowardice that stands in sharp contrast to the courage of the Olympic athletes." Other world leaders echoed his condemnation. It was the worst attack on the Olympics since 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian guerrillas at the Munich Games in 1972.
Melih Uzunyol, a Turkish cameraman covering the concert, died of a heart attack and a 44-year-old U.S. visitor was killed by shrapnel. Alice Hawthorne drove 180 miles to Atlanta with her 14-year-old daughter to see the glamour of the Olympics. The daughter was reported out of danger after surgery.
America, once immune from the excesses of terrorism, was in shock: The bombing at an open-air concert came just 10 days after the explosion that destroyed TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island, killing 230 people.
Plenty of leads
Olympic blast investigators say they have reason to be optimistic, because they have plenty of leads. At least one of the three pipe bombs that were taped together to cause the explosion is intact. There also was a timing device that may help link the bomb to its makers. The device used is said to be more sophisticated than was at first believed.
Pieces of the bomb have been sent to a Georgia law enforcement lab for further analysis.
CNN has learned that investigators have videotapes and snapshots and are studying pictures from surveillance cameras that ring the park. An eyewitness saw four white men dressed in black. They were reportedly acting rowdy and drawing attention to themselves before the explosion.
In the days before the bombing, federal officials told CNN a group of skinheads with a reputation for violence was being monitored. Officials say that is another bit of information being pursued.
Other evidence includes the 911 tape from the warning call made shortly before the explosion. Officials said the caller appeared to be a "white male with a light Southern accent" and did not claim to speak for any group.
FBI special agent Woody Johnson said the explosive consisted of at least one pipe bomb in a knapsack with nails and screws to provide shrapnel.
"We are dealing with an improvised explosive device, what we would describe as an anti-personnel fragmentation device, a homemade bomb," Johnson said.
Bomb went off 23 minutes after call
The bomb exploded during a late night concert at a new, 21- acre downtown park, ringed by office buildings and Olympic arenas, where tens of thousands of tourists and locals have been gathering for pop-music concerts, to visit corporate pavilions and to simply soak in the "Olympic spirit."
Tom Davis, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, told reporters Saturday that the explosion occurred about 23 minutes after the warning call.
"After we did an assessment of the situation, the explosion occurred -- just a powerful tremendous explosion. I do not know how to explain it other than that," Davis said.
Davis said he noticed a package at the park after he was summoned there by a security guard for AT&T who was concerned about some drunk revelers in front of AT&T Tower.
"I noticed that the (drunk) individuals had moved on," Davis said. "He (the AT&T security guard) pointed to a package under a bench in front of the tower and told me that one of them must have left it there."
Davis said he told the guard that they would try to find the package's owner, and if they failed to do so, would treat the parcel as a suspicious package. "And that is what we did," he said.
The victims
The bomb went off at 1:20 a.m. EDT, killing Alice Jane Hawthorne, 44, a tourist from Albany, Georgia. She died at the scene, apparently of massive head injuries, her relatives said. Her daughter, Sally, 14, suffered injuries to her foot and elbow, according to doctors at Georgia Baptist Hospital.
"She was visiting and wanted to go to Olympic Park," said Sherunda McKinley, Hawthorne's cousin who lives in Smyrna, an Atlanta suburb. "I guess she was at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"The medics tried to save her but she went into cardiac arrest," McKinley said.
Officials at Grady Memorial Hospital, where some victims were hospitalized, said nine of the wounded underwent surgery, and three were being treated in the intensive care unit although their conditions were not critical.
The most seriously injured were cut from flying metal and debris. At least one person was in critical condition, but doctors said most of those hurt were "walking wounded."
One visitor from Connecticut who had visited the hospital earlier this week sent 20 bouquets to bomb victims at Grady.
Clinton: bomber deserves death penalty
As a nation wondered why someone would strike at the Olympics -- which has had peace, friendship and global amity as its ideals -- Clinton, who was up most of the night receiving reports from Atlanta, told Americans that those responsible deserve the death penalty.
"I believe that people that deliberately kill other people, particularly under circumstances that demonstrate this kind of cowardice ... deserve capital punishment, I certainly do," the president said.
"I want to make clear our common determination: We will spare no efforts to find out who was responsible for this murderous act," Clinton said in his weekly radio address, which was also carried live on television.
Bomb makes Atlantans jittery
Jittery Atlantans phoned in other scares over suspicious packages as the long, nervous Saturday wore on. Officials said scores of threats and false alarms had been recorded since the games began July 19. Officials investigated about 120 abandoned or suspicious parcels that proved harmless.
Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said a suspicious package that prompted officials to evacuate Underground Atlanta, a downtown shopping mall, for several hours Saturday evening turned out to be a clothes iron with a thermostat control.
The hour-long investigation caused traffic snarls and transportation delays.
"Anytime you have a tragedy, it seems to bring out the kooks out of the woodwork and I suspect that we will have more of those idle threats over the next several days," Campbell said. "But we will have to treat them all with great caution because of what happened last evening."
The MARTA rapid transit system's Five Points hub, which runs adjacent to Underground Atlanta, was closed during the investigation. The transit station is the main north-south and east-west transfer point, so thousands of people were stranded. And major downtown streets were closed for several blocks, causing more travel troubles.
Games go on
Still, in accordance with the International Olympic Committee's pledge, the games went on. The five-ringed Olympic flag flew at half-staff during events Saturday, and spectators at all venues observed a moment of silence to honor the bomb's victims.
Billy Payne, president of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, said no one had ever recommended tightening park security. "People have to have some freedom of movement," he said.
But he stressed the tragedy shouldn't crush the Olympic
spirit. "The Olympic spirit -- saddened, diminished
momentarily in Atlanta -- is a strong, indomitable spirit and
it will come back, even in the midst of our grief," he said.
(765K AIFF or WAV sound of Payne)
Irish swimmer and gold medalist Michelle Smith and U.S. judo medalist Jimmy Pedro told CNN that other Olympic athletes had no plans of leaving Atlanta because of the bombing.
"There are 15,000 athletes and all have trained their entire lives for this event and want the Games to go on," said Smith, who won three gold medals in swimming. "Security around the athletes is just incredible at the moment."
Throughout the day, thousands of people filed into Olympic venues. "This is a trip of a lifetime," said one woman. "We're not going to let the bad guys win."
There will be a greater National Guard presence over the next two days as new sports venues open, but officials said the buildup was pre-planned. By July 29, there will be 10,000 National Guard troops helping to guard the Games.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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