Fugitive charged with Atlanta Olympic bombing
Posted: Thursday October 15, 1998 01:44 AM
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Added to the list of crimes charged to Eric Rudolph, the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta AP |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eric Robert Rudolph, one of the FBI's 10
most-wanted fugitives, was charged Wednesday with the 1996 bombing at
the Olympics and two other attacks in Atlanta.
Attorney General Janet Reno, accompanied at a news conference by
FBI Director Louis Freeh, said the criminal complaint charging
Rudolph with the Olympic blast and the 1997 bombings of a gay bar
and an abortion clinic was being filed with a federal court.
"Eric Rudolph is on the run," Reno said. "We are going to
keep searching until we find him and we're are not going to rest
until we bring him to justice."
Freeh said Rudolph now is charged with six bombings, including
the three attacks in Atlanta and the January 29 bombing of a
Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic for which he was charged earlier.
Freeh mentioned six bombs, because secondary bombs were placed at
both the Atlanta clinic and at the bar.
Federal authorities released a new picture of Rudolph -- one they
said they believe represents how he looked at the time of the
bombings in Centennial Park during the Olympics. It shows Rudolph
wearing khaki shorts, a green T-shirt and dark socks and shoes.
The initial investigation into the Olympic park bombing focused
on Richard Jewell, a security guard who discovered the bomb. His
name was leaked to the media, but he was never charged. Eventually,
the FBI publicly ruled him out.
Wayne Grant, Jewell's lawyer, said it would be inappropriate for
Jewell to comment on the latest development.
Both Reno and Freeh appealed to the public for assistance in
apprehending Rudolph, who has been believed hiding out in North
Carolina.
Reno recalled the bombing that shattered the Olympics in the
summer of 1996 "as thousands milled nearby." She said authorities
were determined to press ahead against senseless violence.
The Olympic bombing killed one person and wounded more than 100
others. An off-duty policeman working as a guard was killed and a
nurse was injured in the Birmingham bombing.
Freeh said all the bombs "were powerful antipersonnel devices,
containing nails, that were designed to kill and maim."
Secondary bombs at the Atlanta bar and clinic may have been
designed to harm law enforcement and rescue workers, as might a
last-minute telephone warning before the Olympic blast, some
investigators say.
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