Feds Let Jewell Off Hook Three-Month Nightmare Ends For Ex-Guard Suspected In Bombing At Olympics

The Justice Department on Saturday ended the nightmare of former security guard Richard Jewell - who went from hero to villain in the bombing at the Olympic Games in Atlanta last summer - by formally acknowledging that Jewell is no longer a suspect in the terrorist incident that led to two deaths and injuries to 111 people.

“We are overjoyed,” said Jewell’s attorney, Jack Martin, citing a one-paragraph letter and two-page statement from U.S. Attorney Kent B. Alexander.

A day after the early morning bombing at the Olympic Park on July 27, the portly former deputy sheriff was being hailed for spotting the green knapsack that contained a crude pipe bomb minutes before it exploded, notifying authorities and helping police move people away from the bomb.

Three days later law enforcement sources told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, then other news media, that the contract security guard was the focus of the FBI’s investigation.

Investigators apparently believed Jewell, who had a checkered career in police and security work, including an arrest for impersonating an officer, fit a common profile for a lone bomber: a former police officer, military man or aspiring cop who seeks to become a hero.

After the bombing, Jewell gave numerous interviews and even approached media outlets himself. He appeared on NBC’s “Today” show on the day he was identified as a suspect.

His life quickly became captive to a whirlwind of notoriety as investigators scoured his apartment, truck and storage shed and as reporters and photographers staked out his house for weeks.

For the most part, the 33-year-old Jewell has lived as a prisoner in the apartment he shares with his mother, watching television, playing video games and depending on her for financial support.

Whenever he left the apartment, whether to pick up his dog at a kennel or to go to an Atlanta Braves baseball game, he was followed by a caravan of television trucks and unmarked FBI vehicles.

Not long after Jewell became a suspect, it became clear that there were problems with the theory that he might be involved.

Jewell’s attorneys had said he could not have made the call because it was made from three blocks away within a minute of the time he was seen in the park by witnesses.

Jewell’s supporters also questioned why anyone would build such a deadly bomb and then remain within the range of its blast as it was about to go off. After discovering the bomb, Jewell, who was providing security for an AT&T light and sound tower in the park, helped evacuate AT&T employees and park visitors.