July 30, 2024 • 19 mins
In this gripping bonus episode, rookie cop Vince Velazquez recounts the chaos of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing and the terror of the Sandy Springs explosion. Join us as we delve into his memories, marked by duty, fear, and resilience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
So I decided to become a cop, something I've always
wanted to do, and applied with the Atlanta Police Department
in nineteen ninety four, went through the police academy the
latter part of ninety five into ninety six, and we
graduated just in time for the Olympics. We were considered
the Olympic class, so they were trying to rush classes
through because they wanted to get as many police officers
(00:25):
on the street during that time as possible.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Vince Velasquez was a twenty nine year old rookie cop
during the tumultuous nineteen ninety six Atlanta Olympics. You heard
part of Historian episode one, but there's a lot more
to it. Sure he was a rookie cop that summer,
but just the year before he had also become a dad.
Vince's personal experience of the bombings was something we felt
(00:50):
compelled to share with you in full.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Be quite honest with you.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I just thought it was the coolest job, and then
in the later years realized that that, you know, this
is one not as easy as I thought it would be, two,
way more dangerous than I ever thought it could or
would be, and then, most importantly, more impactful than ever
thought it would be. So I had just got out
(01:21):
of field training and I fell into this cadence of
the entire department working in the Olympics, fourteen hour shifts,
six days a week, one.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Day off of a week.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We were providing security along with the FBI and federal
agencies and state agencies. So it is policing, but it's
not in a true sense of policing. You're assigned a post,
you have very strict instructions of what to do with
that post, Like your job is sit here, stand here,
don't let cars through unless they have this proper identification,
be alert, report what you see. I started on a
(01:54):
fixed post and that was the controlled section. General traffic
was not allowed on that street. So that was my
point that particular day in July of nineteen ninety six.
I don't recall how far we were into the Olympics,
but it seemed to me a ways because I remember
being worn out for the long days and I was relieved.
(02:15):
They're like, you have like four hours. I'm like, okay,
I could just walk around do what I want. They're like, yeah,
remember I'm a Brookie cop. I don't know shit about shit, right,
I'm like, yes, sir, I'm out.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So I had purchased a brick for my son. When
they were pre construction of OLYMPS Nintennia Olympic Park in
preparation for the Olympics, they had a campaign where you
can purchase a brick, help fund the park, and you
can have an inscription on a brick.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
For just thirty five dollars, you can adopt an inscribed
your brick to be placed in Atlanta's new Centennial Olympic Park.
Do it for yourself, well for a friend. To adopt
your Olympic brick, stop by the home depot or call
one eight six Brick. You know, this could be the
best thing.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So I bought one fifty bucks. My son was born
March first, nineteen ninety five, so I bought a brick
and I inscribed it with my son's name is Jonathan
Taylor Velasquez. I call him JT T JT from Dad
with love his birthday three to one ninety five. I
don't know why I thought, in the middle of the Olympics,
(03:17):
with this four hour break, with literally thousands of people
walking around Centennial Park, I was gonna find his brick
I'm in uniform. I've got a orange traffic vest on
because that's what we required to wear. They wanted you
to stand out and want people to know that you
were police. And here I am. I'm walking down Centennial
Park thousands of people. It was hot, it's July. I
(03:39):
remember that, and you know we bulletproof vests under your
I mean, I'm just sweating bullets with a towel on
my neck. I remember getting near Lucky Street and I
was going to turn right. There's where the main entrance
for law enforcement to come through, and it was not
far from the sound stage. And I recall as I'm
walking and I start to turn right, I probably took
(04:03):
four five steps into the park and the bomb went off.
And the pressure from the bomb knocked me on my ass,
like literally pushed me backwards. It's like it rattles your brain.
But I'm the cops. I'm supposed to know what's going on.
But I felt for a moment helpless, like what happened?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Like what was that?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Until I smelled what smelled to me like a million
matches burning. And if you've ever smelled the matches, the sulfur,
Now I don't know if that was the ingredient of
the bomb, but it smelled like that to me, and
I realized, I'm like, that was not good.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That was a bomb. Something that's happened.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
But what was interesting The bomb went off and it
was silence. It seemed like forever, but it couldn't have
been long. And then I hear screaming and people just
screaming and running. So I run into the park because
I'm figuring that's what I have to do. I'm a cop,
try to figure out what's going on. Georgia State Patrol
(05:11):
I believe was the heavy police presence from my recollection
at that checkpoint. I remember seeing a lot of them
because they wear light blue shirts running around. I saw
people running into the park, I saw people running out
of the park, and then when I looked to my left,
I recall a grassy hill just as I walked into
(05:32):
the park to the left, and I saw a few
people laid out on that hill, and I thought, wow, okay,
those are victims. But then I later found out that
I think one of them may have been someone who
had some shrapnel. But what I found out later was
journalists cameramen who were rushing into the park were trying
to capture this footage, and Georgia State Patrol was telling
(05:55):
them to get out. And if my recollection serves me
from what I was told from a very reliable source,
that at least to the people on that hill were
cameramen who got knocked out by George's stay control because
they wouldn't listen to him. And I do recall seeing
some camera equipment next to him, and I was like, okay,
that makes sense. Right away, I understood that there was
(06:26):
mass casualties. I think over one hundred people got injured
in that bombing. I wasn't aware right away that someone
had died. I think I found out an hour or
so later. And so basically, you know, at this point,
I can't even get on my radio. A lot of
us are on the same frequency, and you can only
imagine the radio traffic was just all over the place.
(06:48):
So I found it best for me to stay off
the radio. There's really nothing for me to contribute at
this point. So I just helped where I could, pushing
people out towards the ambulances and things. I had the requis,
the training to at least help people. You know, I
may not know how to write a hell of a report,
but I know what to do when people are injured,
and I found myself just doing that. I mean, when
(07:12):
I tell you, the chaos was indescribable.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It was literally.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I couldn't tell who was who, although I knew my
gut told me something bad happened, something intentional happened. It's
a bad person. I don't know who that bad person is.
I don't know why they did it, but it happened.
So now I'm in defense mode and I'm thinking, well, shit,
could it be one of these people running out of
the park. But there's thousands of people running. It made
(07:42):
no sense for me to try to figure that out.
So I'm literally going through these and just an analytical person.
So I'm thinking, you know, not domestic terrorism. I'm thinking,
you know, this is international terrorism, because what better place
to do it than the world stage of the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So I didn't know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
This is probably a foreign government or a foreign entity
who are making a statement. Going through these steps in
my mind and I'm like, Okay, the only thing I
can do right now is help people who are injured.
That's it, and let the powers that be try to
figure this out. So I stayed for about an hour
and I just went back to my post. But I
have a newspaper article. I saw it later.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
They took a.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Photo from inside the park, out towards the entrance, and
it's me with my back turn. I can see my
orange vest. I think my hands are on my hips,
like I'm probably thinking, like, what the fuck is going
on here? You know, this is crazy? And then you
know we're just everybody's in lockdown. So back to my posts.
You know, we weren't sure if the Olympics were going
to continue, and we soon found out that yes, they
(08:44):
are going to continue, and we're going to press on
with a regular schedule. I think I ended up working
about eighteen nineteen hours that night before I was relieved
and I had to be right back the next day.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
If you've heard episode one, you know how the rest
of the story goes. In less than twenty four hours,
the Olympics would pick back up, racing to the finish
line without any further issues. Unfortunately, the following January, the
bomber would also pick things back up, carrying out his
own demented game.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So now fast forward. I was living in Sandy Springs,
my son was born March of ninety five. His mother
and I were not married at the time, so anytime
I was not working, i'd go pick him up. He'd
spend three or four nights with me, and I picked
them up the night before you know I'm going to
wake up. I got all day with him before I
(09:45):
got to go back to work. At this point, my
son is almost two years old, so that particular morning
I had woken up early. He's fussy six or seven am.
I laid back on my bed with him, just to
calm him down. He finally falls back asleep, and then
out of nowhere, it felt like the windows in my.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Bedroom were about to break. Like it was.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I can't even describe how loud this felt. It just
like my whole apartment shook. In fact, I had a
clock on the wall that fell off the wall. And
then my first thought was down, we had an earthquake.
We don't have earthquakes in Georgia. I don't think you know,
I don't know what that was. It wasn't a boom
I heard. It was just my entire building just shook,
(10:31):
and my instinct was to jump on top of my son,
so I literally just flipped over got ontipe my son
to shield him. I'm thinking the roof is going to
fall in, and everything just kind of settles down. Well,
of course, I turned on the news and I couldn't
believe what I'm seeing. It was like, Okay, there's a
bombing right down the street at an abortion clinic. And
(10:55):
I'm like, well, damn, that's right down the street. And
in fact, that's where my attorney, that's her office right there.
So I called her.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I couldn't get her on the phone.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
If you remember Rob Stadler from episode two, Vince is
talking about Rob's wife's law firm, the same law firm
where Rob picked up his twin girls, the one housed
two stories above the abortion clinic in the Sandy Springs
Professional Building.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And again I'm watching the news. So later in the afternoon,
I decided to go to work earlier. I took my
son to daycare earlier, and then I'm at the precinct
because I don't know why, I felt I just needed
to go in earlier, and we're watching the news, and
I had no idea at the time that a second
(11:40):
device went off. Now, to be honest with you, I
don't know if the first or the second device that
went off is what caused my apartment to shake. I
obviously missed one of them.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I'm thinking gas line. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
But then we're talking about secondary device. I'm like, all right,
here we go again. This is not natural. It's not
gas this is bad. It's not us. It's a bad guy.
But I'm still not putting those two things together. It's
a rundown office building and the Olympics. That doesn't make
sense to me at this time. Remember, we don't know
who did the Olympic Park bombing. I'm already in the
(12:17):
mindset that the Olympic Park bombing is a terrorist attack.
Why would a terrorists want to blow up an office building?
Makes no sense. Those two lines didn't converge in my mind.
It's like, Okay, it's unfortunate that this happened. It wasn't
even an exercise of me trying to disprove why they're
not connected. The thought never even entered my mind, Like
(12:38):
I never even had that thought process like these two
things could be related because they were so different. I
didn't connect the dots at first with the Olympic bombing
and the abortion clinic until the other side lounge was bombed.
So when that bomb happened, I start connecting the office
bombing with the other side lounge bombing. But then I
(13:02):
start thinking this is just two coincidental to have three
bombings in a city, right, They're all intentional.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Then I'm thinking, well, shit, these have to be related, you.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Know, cause I'm thinking a gay lounge is bomb unabortion
clinic is bombed, the Olympics are bombed. These three things
have to be related. This is beyond coincidental. And then
the Alabama abortion clinic bombing happens, and as we know,
a police officer is killed. So we really are paying
attention to this. Now, who is this guy is he's
(13:36):
targeting police officers. Obviously he's got a problem with abortion.
It's two abortion clinics if it is connected with the Olympics.
Now we have three deaths, and who knows how many
other people were like permanently injured in the Olympic bombing.
So I started really looking at you know, I'm talking
this is.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Like AOL days, right, like dial up.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Internet, and I'm just like reading and at the same time,
I'm like Richard Jewel, like this makes no fucking sense, right,
So I'm amateur sleuthing this whole thing, right, and not
that I have great investigative skills in nineteen ninety seven,
but this doesn't make sense to me. On one hand,
(14:21):
I'm like, this is all connected. It's not Richard Jewel, right,
Alabama three in Atlanta. This guy's got a problem with abortion,
this guy's got a problem with gay people. And whoever
knows what his statement was for the Olympics. But this
is political. This is someone who has some ideological problem
with certain groups of people and he's trying to make
(14:42):
a statement and people are dying, and it's not Richard Jewel.
And remember I'm talking to you now from someone who's
spent twenty two years as a cop, seventeen years in homicide.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It's easier for me to digest this.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And my perception now is they made a ton of
mistakes looking back at it, you know, hindsight being twenty twenty,
the FBI, the ATF, and APDE, it seemed to be
a strained relationship federal agencies. The ATF taking control because
it isn't bombing, the FBI having a terrorism aspect of
this thing if it indeed is not domestic, and then
(15:17):
APD it's in our city. So at the end of
the day, this is a homicide. This goes on the
books in the city of Atlanta as a homicide. Two
homicides to be exact Alice Hawthorne and the journalists, which
means a homicide detective gets a sign that case.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I didn't know all that then I know that now.
So while a.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Detective is working that case, he or she has to
work with whatever federal agency is now taking charge of
this because of the nature of how it happened, it
was all fucked up. Nobody knew what the other agency
was doing, and that's always problematic.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
The Richard Jewel stories is sad.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It's it's a sad testimony to not you know, this
is a guy that really tried to do the right thing.
But it's a testimony like some shitty police work. That's
some bullshit what they put this guy through. And I
can tell you as a detective, it's easy when you
have a piece of information that comes your way, it
lands in your lap and it helps you right. The
(16:26):
problem is when you have another piece of information that
contradicts that, it completely throws you off. It doesn't fit
with what's going on in the way you want things
to go because this guy has to be it because
everything's lining up. And the truth of the matter is,
it doesn't matter. The truth is the truth. It's like
(16:46):
a compass, no matter how you turn it, it's always
going to point north.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
That's the truth, period.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And when I look back at this case, to me,
it seems like they had laser vision on Richard Jewel.
And the sad part is when you have laser vision,
something you miss so much else that it's probably evidence
that you need to be collecting or looking at, because
that's what tunnel vision is. You can't see past these blinders.
(17:12):
Not criticizing the FBI, I don't really know. I wasn't
in the know. I don't know the particulars, but it
just we know he wasn't the guy, but he was
the guy for a while. If you look back at
these news clippings, you look at history, you know, in
a civil jury decided y'all made him the guy because
they awarded him a shitload of money for that. I mean,
(17:34):
they ruined this guy's reputation. He'd a point.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Guy died. I think he died of a heart attack.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The intersectional moments in our lives when things are scary
or difficult, or unjust or overwhelming. They mark us in
ways that surface unexpectedly. Sometimes it's a slow burn, other
times we become prisoners to the trauma. Vince's story represents
the struggle well. So I asked him, out of all
(18:02):
your memories surrounding these bombings, what sticks with you the most.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The moment I had to jump on top of my
son instinctfully, like just knowing that I have to just
cover him. I don't know what's coming next, you know,
put me to the point of thinking that I literally
was close to this guy that killed people, Like here
we are again. You know you almost got me in
ninety six, and now you almost got me and my son.
I mean, if I could feel my windows shaken and
(18:29):
I'm thinking the roof is coming down that moment, I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
It was it was fight or flight, right, So I
couldn't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I had to discover my son and hold hope that
nothing happened. So that was a wake up call for me,
like this shit is real, Like this guy's really trying
to hurt people, you know. I mean, thankfully I was
far enough away from it that we weren't injured, but
it did put into perspective like I could have been.
I could have had an appointment that morning with Christine,
(18:58):
Like Christine could have been an off. I could have
been like, I'm on my way to daycare, let me
just pop in with my son, and we could have
been sitting in her office right where that ceiling caved in,
and I wouldn't be talking to you right now.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
You're a natural storyteller, so all these questions I had
laid out, you were hitting on your own.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Oh cool, Thank you, love cool, glad I could help man.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
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(19:46):
feed as we'll be dropping more bonus episodes available only
for Plus subscribers. Thank you for listening.
So I decided to become a cop, something I've always
wanted to do, and applied with the Atlanta Police Department
in nineteen ninety four, went through the police academy the
latter part of ninety five into ninety six, and we
graduated just in time for the Olympics. We were considered
the Olympic class, so they were trying to rush classes
through because they wanted to get as many police officers
(00:25):
on the street during that time as possible.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Vince Velasquez was a twenty nine year old rookie cop
during the tumultuous nineteen ninety six Atlanta Olympics. You heard
part of Historian episode one, but there's a lot more
to it. Sure he was a rookie cop that summer,
but just the year before he had also become a dad.
Vince's personal experience of the bombings was something we felt
(00:50):
compelled to share with you in full.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Be quite honest with you.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I just thought it was the coolest job, and then
in the later years realized that that, you know, this
is one not as easy as I thought it would be, two,
way more dangerous than I ever thought it could or
would be, and then, most importantly, more impactful than ever
thought it would be. So I had just got out
(01:21):
of field training and I fell into this cadence of
the entire department working in the Olympics, fourteen hour shifts,
six days a week, one.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Day off of a week.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
We were providing security along with the FBI and federal
agencies and state agencies. So it is policing, but it's
not in a true sense of policing. You're assigned a post,
you have very strict instructions of what to do with
that post, Like your job is sit here, stand here,
don't let cars through unless they have this proper identification,
be alert, report what you see. I started on a
(01:54):
fixed post and that was the controlled section. General traffic
was not allowed on that street. So that was my
point that particular day in July of nineteen ninety six.
I don't recall how far we were into the Olympics,
but it seemed to me a ways because I remember
being worn out for the long days and I was relieved.
(02:15):
They're like, you have like four hours. I'm like, okay,
I could just walk around do what I want. They're like, yeah,
remember I'm a Brookie cop. I don't know shit about shit, right,
I'm like, yes, sir, I'm out.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So I had purchased a brick for my son. When
they were pre construction of OLYMPS Nintennia Olympic Park in
preparation for the Olympics, they had a campaign where you
can purchase a brick, help fund the park, and you
can have an inscription on a brick.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
For just thirty five dollars, you can adopt an inscribed
your brick to be placed in Atlanta's new Centennial Olympic Park.
Do it for yourself, well for a friend. To adopt
your Olympic brick, stop by the home depot or call
one eight six Brick. You know, this could be the
best thing.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
So I bought one fifty bucks. My son was born
March first, nineteen ninety five, so I bought a brick
and I inscribed it with my son's name is Jonathan
Taylor Velasquez. I call him JT T JT from Dad
with love his birthday three to one ninety five. I
don't know why I thought, in the middle of the Olympics,
(03:17):
with this four hour break, with literally thousands of people
walking around Centennial Park, I was gonna find his brick
I'm in uniform. I've got a orange traffic vest on
because that's what we required to wear. They wanted you
to stand out and want people to know that you
were police. And here I am. I'm walking down Centennial
Park thousands of people. It was hot, it's July. I
(03:39):
remember that, and you know we bulletproof vests under your
I mean, I'm just sweating bullets with a towel on
my neck. I remember getting near Lucky Street and I
was going to turn right. There's where the main entrance
for law enforcement to come through, and it was not
far from the sound stage. And I recall as I'm
walking and I start to turn right, I probably took
(04:03):
four five steps into the park and the bomb went off.
And the pressure from the bomb knocked me on my ass,
like literally pushed me backwards. It's like it rattles your brain.
But I'm the cops. I'm supposed to know what's going on.
But I felt for a moment helpless, like what happened?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Like what was that?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Until I smelled what smelled to me like a million
matches burning. And if you've ever smelled the matches, the sulfur,
Now I don't know if that was the ingredient of
the bomb, but it smelled like that to me, and
I realized, I'm like, that was not good.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That was a bomb. Something that's happened.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
But what was interesting The bomb went off and it
was silence. It seemed like forever, but it couldn't have
been long. And then I hear screaming and people just
screaming and running. So I run into the park because
I'm figuring that's what I have to do. I'm a cop,
try to figure out what's going on. Georgia State Patrol
(05:11):
I believe was the heavy police presence from my recollection
at that checkpoint. I remember seeing a lot of them
because they wear light blue shirts running around. I saw
people running into the park, I saw people running out
of the park, and then when I looked to my left,
I recall a grassy hill just as I walked into
(05:32):
the park to the left, and I saw a few
people laid out on that hill, and I thought, wow, okay,
those are victims. But then I later found out that
I think one of them may have been someone who
had some shrapnel. But what I found out later was
journalists cameramen who were rushing into the park were trying
to capture this footage, and Georgia State Patrol was telling
(05:55):
them to get out. And if my recollection serves me
from what I was told from a very reliable source,
that at least to the people on that hill were
cameramen who got knocked out by George's stay control because
they wouldn't listen to him. And I do recall seeing
some camera equipment next to him, and I was like, okay,
that makes sense. Right away, I understood that there was
(06:26):
mass casualties. I think over one hundred people got injured
in that bombing. I wasn't aware right away that someone
had died. I think I found out an hour or
so later. And so basically, you know, at this point,
I can't even get on my radio. A lot of
us are on the same frequency, and you can only
imagine the radio traffic was just all over the place.
(06:48):
So I found it best for me to stay off
the radio. There's really nothing for me to contribute at
this point. So I just helped where I could, pushing
people out towards the ambulances and things. I had the requis,
the training to at least help people. You know, I
may not know how to write a hell of a report,
but I know what to do when people are injured,
and I found myself just doing that. I mean, when
(07:12):
I tell you, the chaos was indescribable.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
It was literally.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I couldn't tell who was who, although I knew my
gut told me something bad happened, something intentional happened. It's
a bad person. I don't know who that bad person is.
I don't know why they did it, but it happened.
So now I'm in defense mode and I'm thinking, well, shit,
could it be one of these people running out of
the park. But there's thousands of people running. It made
(07:42):
no sense for me to try to figure that out.
So I'm literally going through these and just an analytical person.
So I'm thinking, you know, not domestic terrorism. I'm thinking,
you know, this is international terrorism, because what better place
to do it than the world stage of the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
So I didn't know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
This is probably a foreign government or a foreign entity
who are making a statement. Going through these steps in
my mind and I'm like, Okay, the only thing I
can do right now is help people who are injured.
That's it, and let the powers that be try to
figure this out. So I stayed for about an hour
and I just went back to my post. But I
have a newspaper article. I saw it later.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
They took a.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Photo from inside the park, out towards the entrance, and
it's me with my back turn. I can see my
orange vest. I think my hands are on my hips,
like I'm probably thinking, like, what the fuck is going
on here? You know, this is crazy? And then you
know we're just everybody's in lockdown. So back to my posts.
You know, we weren't sure if the Olympics were going
to continue, and we soon found out that yes, they
(08:44):
are going to continue, and we're going to press on
with a regular schedule. I think I ended up working
about eighteen nineteen hours that night before I was relieved
and I had to be right back the next day.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
If you've heard episode one, you know how the rest
of the story goes. In less than twenty four hours,
the Olympics would pick back up, racing to the finish
line without any further issues. Unfortunately, the following January, the
bomber would also pick things back up, carrying out his
own demented game.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So now fast forward. I was living in Sandy Springs,
my son was born March of ninety five. His mother
and I were not married at the time, so anytime
I was not working, i'd go pick him up. He'd
spend three or four nights with me, and I picked
them up the night before you know I'm going to
wake up. I got all day with him before I
(09:45):
got to go back to work. At this point, my
son is almost two years old, so that particular morning
I had woken up early. He's fussy six or seven am.
I laid back on my bed with him, just to
calm him down. He finally falls back asleep, and then
out of nowhere, it felt like the windows in my.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Bedroom were about to break. Like it was.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
I can't even describe how loud this felt. It just
like my whole apartment shook. In fact, I had a
clock on the wall that fell off the wall. And
then my first thought was down, we had an earthquake.
We don't have earthquakes in Georgia. I don't think you know,
I don't know what that was. It wasn't a boom
I heard. It was just my entire building just shook,
(10:31):
and my instinct was to jump on top of my son,
so I literally just flipped over got ontipe my son
to shield him. I'm thinking the roof is going to
fall in, and everything just kind of settles down. Well,
of course, I turned on the news and I couldn't
believe what I'm seeing. It was like, Okay, there's a
bombing right down the street at an abortion clinic. And
(10:55):
I'm like, well, damn, that's right down the street. And
in fact, that's where my attorney, that's her office right there.
So I called her.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I couldn't get her on the phone.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
If you remember Rob Stadler from episode two, Vince is
talking about Rob's wife's law firm, the same law firm
where Rob picked up his twin girls, the one housed
two stories above the abortion clinic in the Sandy Springs
Professional Building.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And again I'm watching the news. So later in the afternoon,
I decided to go to work earlier. I took my
son to daycare earlier, and then I'm at the precinct
because I don't know why, I felt I just needed
to go in earlier, and we're watching the news, and
I had no idea at the time that a second
(11:40):
device went off. Now, to be honest with you, I
don't know if the first or the second device that
went off is what caused my apartment to shake. I
obviously missed one of them.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I'm thinking gas line. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
But then we're talking about secondary device. I'm like, all right,
here we go again. This is not natural. It's not
gas this is bad. It's not us. It's a bad guy.
But I'm still not putting those two things together. It's
a rundown office building and the Olympics. That doesn't make
sense to me at this time. Remember, we don't know
who did the Olympic Park bombing. I'm already in the
(12:17):
mindset that the Olympic Park bombing is a terrorist attack.
Why would a terrorists want to blow up an office building?
Makes no sense. Those two lines didn't converge in my mind.
It's like, Okay, it's unfortunate that this happened. It wasn't
even an exercise of me trying to disprove why they're
not connected. The thought never even entered my mind, Like
(12:38):
I never even had that thought process like these two
things could be related because they were so different. I
didn't connect the dots at first with the Olympic bombing
and the abortion clinic until the other side lounge was bombed.
So when that bomb happened, I start connecting the office
bombing with the other side lounge bombing. But then I
(13:02):
start thinking this is just two coincidental to have three
bombings in a city, right, They're all intentional.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Then I'm thinking, well, shit, these have to be related, you.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Know, cause I'm thinking a gay lounge is bomb unabortion
clinic is bombed, the Olympics are bombed. These three things
have to be related. This is beyond coincidental. And then
the Alabama abortion clinic bombing happens, and as we know,
a police officer is killed. So we really are paying
attention to this. Now, who is this guy is he's
(13:36):
targeting police officers. Obviously he's got a problem with abortion.
It's two abortion clinics if it is connected with the Olympics.
Now we have three deaths, and who knows how many
other people were like permanently injured in the Olympic bombing.
So I started really looking at you know, I'm talking
this is.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Like AOL days, right, like dial up.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Internet, and I'm just like reading and at the same time,
I'm like Richard Jewel, like this makes no fucking sense, right,
So I'm amateur sleuthing this whole thing, right, and not
that I have great investigative skills in nineteen ninety seven,
but this doesn't make sense to me. On one hand,
(14:21):
I'm like, this is all connected. It's not Richard Jewel, right,
Alabama three in Atlanta. This guy's got a problem with abortion,
this guy's got a problem with gay people. And whoever
knows what his statement was for the Olympics. But this
is political. This is someone who has some ideological problem
with certain groups of people and he's trying to make
(14:42):
a statement and people are dying, and it's not Richard Jewel.
And remember I'm talking to you now from someone who's
spent twenty two years as a cop, seventeen years in homicide.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It's easier for me to digest this.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
And my perception now is they made a ton of
mistakes looking back at it, you know, hindsight being twenty twenty,
the FBI, the ATF, and APDE, it seemed to be
a strained relationship federal agencies. The ATF taking control because
it isn't bombing, the FBI having a terrorism aspect of
this thing if it indeed is not domestic, and then
(15:17):
APD it's in our city. So at the end of
the day, this is a homicide. This goes on the
books in the city of Atlanta as a homicide. Two
homicides to be exact Alice Hawthorne and the journalists, which
means a homicide detective gets a sign that case.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I didn't know all that then I know that now.
So while a.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Detective is working that case, he or she has to
work with whatever federal agency is now taking charge of
this because of the nature of how it happened, it
was all fucked up. Nobody knew what the other agency
was doing, and that's always problematic.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
The Richard Jewel stories is sad.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It's it's a sad testimony to not you know, this
is a guy that really tried to do the right thing.
But it's a testimony like some shitty police work. That's
some bullshit what they put this guy through. And I
can tell you as a detective, it's easy when you
have a piece of information that comes your way, it
lands in your lap and it helps you right. The
(16:26):
problem is when you have another piece of information that
contradicts that, it completely throws you off. It doesn't fit
with what's going on in the way you want things
to go because this guy has to be it because
everything's lining up. And the truth of the matter is,
it doesn't matter. The truth is the truth. It's like
(16:46):
a compass, no matter how you turn it, it's always
going to point north.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
That's the truth, period.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
And when I look back at this case, to me,
it seems like they had laser vision on Richard Jewel.
And the sad part is when you have laser vision,
something you miss so much else that it's probably evidence
that you need to be collecting or looking at, because
that's what tunnel vision is. You can't see past these blinders.
(17:12):
Not criticizing the FBI, I don't really know. I wasn't
in the know. I don't know the particulars, but it
just we know he wasn't the guy, but he was
the guy for a while. If you look back at
these news clippings, you look at history, you know, in
a civil jury decided y'all made him the guy because
they awarded him a shitload of money for that. I mean,
(17:34):
they ruined this guy's reputation. He'd a point.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Guy died. I think he died of a heart attack.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The intersectional moments in our lives when things are scary
or difficult, or unjust or overwhelming. They mark us in
ways that surface unexpectedly. Sometimes it's a slow burn, other
times we become prisoners to the trauma. Vince's story represents
the struggle well. So I asked him, out of all
(18:02):
your memories surrounding these bombings, what sticks with you the most.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The moment I had to jump on top of my
son instinctfully, like just knowing that I have to just
cover him. I don't know what's coming next, you know,
put me to the point of thinking that I literally
was close to this guy that killed people, Like here
we are again. You know you almost got me in
ninety six, and now you almost got me and my son.
I mean, if I could feel my windows shaken and
(18:29):
I'm thinking the roof is coming down that moment, I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
It was it was fight or flight, right, So I
couldn't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
I had to discover my son and hold hope that
nothing happened. So that was a wake up call for me,
like this shit is real, Like this guy's really trying
to hurt people, you know. I mean, thankfully I was
far enough away from it that we weren't injured, but
it did put into perspective like I could have been.
I could have had an appointment that morning with Christine,
(18:58):
Like Christine could have been an off. I could have
been like, I'm on my way to daycare, let me
just pop in with my son, and we could have
been sitting in her office right where that ceiling caved in,
and I wouldn't be talking to you right now.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
You're a natural storyteller, so all these questions I had
laid out, you were hitting on your own.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Oh cool, Thank you, love cool, glad I could help man.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Flashpoint releases new episodes every Thursday, but for early access
and ad free listening, head to the link in your
show notes and subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus. Members receive episodes
a week in advance, exclusive bonus content, and add free
access to the entire tenderfoot TV library. If you are
a Tenderfoot Plus subscriber, keep an eye on your Flashpoint
(19:46):
feed as we'll be dropping more bonus episodes available only
for Plus subscribers. Thank you for listening.
Host
Cole Locascio
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