Atlanta bomb suspect arrested in US
Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man early today believed to be Eric Rudolph, the fugitive charged with the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta and in bomb attacks at a gay nightclub and an abortion clinic, the FBI said.
The man was digging in a rubbish bin in the small North Carolina town of Murphy when he was stopped at about 4.30am, said Special Agent John Iannarelli in Washington.
He said the man appeared to be homeless; deputies believe he is Rudolph.
Authorities believe that on July 27, 1996, Rudolph placed a bomb hidden in a knapsack in Atlanta’s crowded Centennial Olympic Park during the summer Olympic games.
The explosion at the crowded park killed one woman and injured 111 other people.
Rudolph was charged in 1998 with that bombing and three others – at a gay nightclub in Atlanta, an office building north of Atlanta and an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, where a police officer was killed.
In all, the bombings killed two and wounded more than 150 people, according to the FBI.
Rudolph is believed to adhere to Christian Identity, a white supremacist religion that is anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner.
Some of the four bombs Rudolph was charged with planting included messages from the shadowy ”Army of God.”
Authorities were doing fingerprint analysis on today morning to determine if his prints matched Rudolph’s, and they expected to have the results by afternoon, Iannarelli said.
Rudolph, a 36-year-old Army veteran and experienced outdoorsman, has not been seen since July 1998 after he allegedly stole supplies from a health store owner in North Carolina. His truck had been spotted there early that year.
Authorities spent years searching the rural mountains and caves of North Carolina for any trace of Rudolph.
Rudolph eluded a massive manhunt and remains on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. The FBI also had offered one million dollars reward for his capture.
Pockets of western North Carolina have had a reputation as a haven for right-wing extremists.
Some there mocked the government’s inability to find Rudolph with bloodhounds, infrared-equipped helicopters and space-age motion detectors – and some said they would hide him if asked.
