Judge first, ask questions later

The 1996 Sum­mer Olympics were about half over on July 27. Spec­ta­tors, ath­letes and reporters were enjoy­ing a night out and review­ing the days’ events, con­gre­gat­ing on the 21-acre Cen­ten­nial Olympic Park and lis­ten­ing to a free con­cert there. Some­time after mid­night, a secu­rity guard noticed a sus­pi­cious bag and began to move peo­ple away from the area. The bomb squad was alerted. At 1:20 a.m., the largest pipe bomb in U.S. his­tory exploded, show­er­ing the area with shrap­nel. One woman was killed by the blast and a cam­era­man rush­ing to cover the explo­sion died of a heart attack. One hun­dred and eleven peo­ple were injured.