BLOODY APRIL

Story by Carol Hopkins
Of The Oakland Press

Va. Tech, Columbine, Oklahoma City, Waco… all happened in April.

On April 19, 1993, following a 51-day standoff, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. A fire, later determined to have been set by the Davidians, destroyed the compound and killed 57 of its residents.

On April 19, 1995, a bomb inside a rental truck exploded at the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people in what was then the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

The killer turned out to be 27-year-old Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh’s ex-Army buddy, Terry Nichols, was also charged in the crime.

On April 20, 1999, two armed high school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, walked through Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. In the end, 12 students, one teacher and the two murderers were dead.

April 16th, 2007, Monday’s, slaughter of 32 by a 23-year-old South Korean student at Virginia Tech added to the terrible list.

There’s more!

Want to go back even further in history? The Titanic sank on April 14, 1912; Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865; and the San Francisco Earthquake hit April 14, 1912.