ATLANTA — As Atlanta marks the 30th anniversary of the Centennial Olympic Games, a former first responder is sharing what he saw that night in an exclusive interview that changed the investigation.
Former Atlanta police officer Irv Brandt found remnants of the pipe bomb, and he stood over them until investigators arrived on the scene hours later.
Brandt told Channel 2’s Karyn Greer that he will never forget that night, the chaos, the fear, and what he found on the scene.
“I had my back to the sound tower when the bomb went off. And I didn’t understand at first what had happened. I knew it was an explosion,” Brandt said.
He said the scene was overwhelming with injured people on the ground all around him, and first responders trying to prioritize where to begin.
“I was getting everyone out, and I was going to secure the gate. And while I was in there, I saw a big piece of the bomb. I could tell it was a pipe bomb, and I could see the threading and things like that,” Brandt said.
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He didn’t want to leave it, so he waited, standing over that piece of the bomb evidence until investigators got to him in the early morning hours
“I stayed in the park all night. I was the only one in the park. I protected this piece of evidence,” Brandt said.
When the FBI crime scene techs and the Atlanta Police Department crime scene techs got there, Brandt said he started to wonder if there was another device in the park and could he be risking his life.
“I was wondering if there was going to be a secondary explosion at some point. But as time passed and there wasn’t an explosion, you know, I felt better and better about it,” Brandt said.
The bombing killed a Georgia woman, and a journalist from Turkey suffered a heart attack and died. More than 100 others were injured.
The bombing became one of the defining moments of the summer Olympic games.
Brandt said what happened is a daily reminder to him of how quickly routine duty can turn into a mass casualty scene.
“I just could not believe that I wasn’t hit. Everyone else was injured, all the GBI agents, bloody faces, shrapnel, things like that, but not a scratch,” Brandt said.
As for the security guard who spotted the suspicious backpack -- Richard Jewell-- Brandt said he knew he was not the Centennial Olympic Park bomber.
“For someone who wanted to be a law enforcement officer, to have the world believe that you were the person that committed that crime, must have been really, really tough,” Brandt said.
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