4.19.24 – KOCO – Oklahoma City
A remembrance ceremony at the Oklahoma City National Memorial honored those who died, those who survived and those changed forever by the attack
On Friday, Oklahomans paused to remember 168 lives lost and those who survived the Murrah Building bombing 29 years ago.
A remembrance ceremony at the Oklahoma City National Memorial honored those who died, those who survived and those changed forever by the attack. Open the video player above to watch the ceremony in its entirety.
On April 19, 1995, 168 men, women and children were taken in what was the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism in American history. Nineteen of those killed were children.
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In the 29 years since the Oklahoma City bombing, the city has done its best to heal and move forward. Families, survivors, first responders and citizens will come to watch the Ceremony on Sacred Soil.
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Gov. Kevin Stitt highlighted the beginnings, growth and continued need for the Oklahoma Standard during Friday’s remembrance ceremony honoring the 168 people killed on April 19, 1995.
“One moment – 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995 – Oklahoma changed forever,” Stitt said. “Terror struck the heart of America. Evil tried to tear us apart,” Stitt said. “But we looked evil in the eye, and we came together as one Oklahoma,” Stitt said. “We showed our strength, our resilience and our courage. Out of the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building came the Oklahoma Standard.”
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt also reminded people of the need to not only remember and honor those killed on April 19, 1995, but also to learn and teach of the horrors of the city’s darkest day.
“This has weighed heavy on my heart each of these seven years because this is a place where Americans killed Americans,” Holt said. “And my time as mayor of this city has coincided with national political vitriol the likes of which our country has rarely seen. The lessons of April 19, 1995, were written for such a time.”