By Allan Lengel
Deadline Detroit
DETROIT — It was noon on a Friday. I was reporter at The Detroit News. It was two days after the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Before long, another reporter and I were speeding north on I-75 to Decker, in the Michigan Thumb, to check out an FBI raid at a farmhouse where suspects Terry Nichols and Tim McVeigh had spent time.
When we arrived, it was a full-blown circus. Media satellite trucks were camped along the dirt road bordering the farm, and reporters were walking about, interviewing locals. Federal agents crawled all over the farm, looking for clues.
I even spotted undercover ATF agents walking along the perimeter of the farm, trying to befriend locals to find out information that might shed light on the attack that killed 168 people. One of them, who I knew, waived me away as I approached.
It was in the coming days that we would hear about the local militias and the harsh anti-government sentiments, some of them the result of government foreclosures on farms.
It was an eye-opener not only for the public, but for law enforcement, which realized it had to step up its game and monitor and crack down on the enemy within — the domestic terrorist.
I’m reminded of the tragic bombing in Oklahoma 18 years ago to this day as we process the tragedy in Boston.
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