Fbi Identifies Seven People In Olympic Park Photo They May Be Possible Witnesses To Bombing That Killed 1, Hurt 100

Less than 24 hours after appealing for help from the public, the FBI identified seven of nine people in photos taken at the Olympic park minutes before the bombing.

“We’ve had an enormous response,” FBI spokesman Jay Spadafore said Friday. “We’re very gratified.”

The FBI on Thursday released dark and blurry photographs of eight people and an artist’s sketch of a man, saying it wanted to talk to them as possible witnesses to the July 27 bombing that killed one person and injured more than 100.

By Friday, just two of the people remained unidentified: the man in the sketch and a man seen in a fuzzy photographic silhouette wearing a long shirt or smock and carrying a backpack.

Meanwhile, a woman who said she, her husband and daughter were pictured in one FBI photo has turned over a videotape she took minutes before the bombing. The tape appears to show two guards searching under a bench before the explosion. The bomb had been placed under a bench in a knapsack.

Sara Anderson of suburban Woodstock said she recognized herself and her family in a blurry, color photo of three people sitting on the ground near where the bomb exploded.

Callers to a tip line also identified three men photographed walking near the blast site and a man videotaped while apparently wearing a military-style backpack.

“Some people called in on their own, others had friends call,” said Jack Daulton, head of the FBI task force investigating the bombing. “There is a hesitancy. I think people are cautious about their privacy and we respect that.”

Twin bombs exploded in January at an abortion clinic north of Atlanta, injuring seven people, and last month a bomb injured five people at a gay nightclub. The FBI is warning minority groups to be on guard against more bombings.

Although agents have not linked the explosion at the park to the other bombings, the possibility of a connection played a part in the release of the photos.

“The potential for an additional bombing certainly moved us along a little bit,” Daulton said. “It’s something we have to consider with every step of the investigation.”