Gary Tuchman: Sixth Oklahoma City bombing anniversary

Gray Tuchman

Gary Tuchman is a CNN national correspondent. He conducted this interview from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Q: What were the highlights of today's events of the 6th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building?

Tuchman: The events started with 168 seconds of silence, one second for each of the victims of the federal building bombing. Church bells then rang out Amazing Grace and then each of the 168 names was announced. When the names were announced, then family members would then go down to the memorial where 168 empty chairs sit at the site of the former building. They would go to the chairs, place the flowers and other items of rememberence on their loved ones chair.

GALLERY Painful memories in Oklahoma City   RESOURCES KOCO-TV   • Survivor tree branches out   ALSO Execution witness to McVeigh viewers: 'You're always grieving'   MESSAGE BOARD Death penalty

Q: With the execution of Timothy McVeigh just one month away, is the mood of this anniversary of the bombing any different than years past?

Tuchman: There is a different mood here this year. It's just as sad as ever, but family members of victims and survivors are also well aware that instead of waiting another whole year to gather together again, that many of them will be gathering together next month to be witnesses of the execution of Timothy McVeigh. A close circuit set up in Oklahoma City will permit 250 to witness it on television, and ten will witness it in person in Indiana.

Q: Will the execution give a feeling of closure?

Tuchman: One thing we hear over and over again from family members of victims and survivors is that they do not like to use the word closure. They say that's impossible; however, many believe the execution of Timothy McVeigh is a very important step in terms of making sure justice is served and in that way it will help them. Others tell us they don't see it helping them at all, even though most of them feel the execution is right. But no one uses the word closure.

Q: Can you describe the memorial that now sits in the place of the bombing site? Are the survivors and families of the victims pleased and satisfied with that memorial?

Tuchman: Most everyone seems to very much like this memorial. There are three components to it. There is an indoor museum that just opened two months ago. It is an incredible poignant display of what happened in pictures. There is also a terrorism institute for scholars and an outdoor memorial, which opened exactly a year ago. The main feature of the outdoor memorial is 168 empty chairs made of bronze and glass representing the lives that were lost. Each chair has a victim's name on it. The chairs are in nine rows, the nine rows representing the nine floors that were in the Murrah Federal Building.

Q: How does the Oklahoma City community feel about the media and attention it receives this time of year and especially this anniversary?

Tuchman: It pleases us as members of the media to hear so many of these people going through so much that they feel the news media has been polite and cooperative in these six years with them. Many of us in the news media have been coming here for a long time. They are our friends, and we feel compassion and sympathy for them. Speaking on behalf of almost all the news media, we try our best to only talk with them when they are ready to talk with us.

U.S. wants McVeigh webcast lawsuit dismissed
April 13, 2001
Bill Press: McVeigh to die on television
April 13, 2001
Ashcroft OKs closed TV feed of McVeigh execution
April 11, 2001
Ashcroft discusses McVeigh execution plan
April 10, 2001
FBI: McVeigh knew children would be killed in OKC blast
March 29, 2001
McVeigh autopsy deal says no 'invasive procedure'
March 19, 2001
Terrorism changes mind of death penalty opponents
March 6, 2001
McVeigh scheduled to die by lethal injection May 16
January 16, 2001
Judge says McVeigh can drop appeals
December 28, 2000
Roger Cossack on McVeigh request to end death penalty appeals
December 28, 2000
Oklahoma City bombing victims remembered, 5 years later
April 19, 2000
McVeigh: Gulf War killings led him on path to disillusionment
March 13, 2000
Grand jury finds McVeigh, Nichols acted alone in Oklahoma bombing
December 30, 1998
Oklahoma City bombing trial
March 1997
Timothy McVeigh and the death penalty
December 1996
McVeigh, Nichols plead not guilty in bombing
August 13, 1996

Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Oklahoma State Government
Death Penalty Information Center
U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.