Today we remember the lives cut tragically short on February 26, 1993: John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick, Stephen Knapp, William Macko, Wilfredo Mercado, and Monica Rodriguez Smith and her unborn child.  Each of their names are inscribed on the 9/11 Memorial in the North Tower Footprint. 

 

Nineteen years ago a terrorist bomb was detonated in the basement of the World Trade Center causing numerous fires and smoke that quickly rose up through both towers. With thick smoke filling the stairwells, evacuation was difficult for building occupants and many succumbed to smoke inhalation injuries. Hundreds were trapped for hours in elevators and offices, and a group of several hundred - including groups of elementary school children on a class trip - were on the South Tower roof observation deck. It took approximately 10 hours to evacuate some 60,000 people from the towers.

 

The attack was planned by a group of Islamic fundamentalists including an individual named Ramzi Yousef, who was born in Kuwait and spent time at Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Yousef arrived in the US on September 1, 1992, setting up residence in Jersey City, NJ.  After being introduced to his co-conspirators at a Brooklyn mosque, Yousef began planning for the attack and assembling ingredients for the bomb in his Jersey City apartment.

On February 26, 1993, Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil, drove a yellow Ryder rental van into Lower Manhattan, and pulled into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center around noon. They ignited a 20 foot long fuse and departed. Minutes later, at 12:18 PM, the bomb exploded in the underground garage. The explosion caused a crater 200 by 200 feet wide and blew through five basement levels, collapsing one on top of another.

 

In March 1994, four men were convicted of assisting with the bombing. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. On May 25th, a judge sentenced each of the four defendants to 240 years in prison. Eventually Yousef and Ismoil were arrested in Pakistan and in November 1997 were also convicted, receiving life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

 

A granite memorial fountain honoring the victims was dedicated in 1995 on the World Trade Center Plaza, directly above the site of the explosion. It contained the names of the six people who perished in the attack as well as an inscription that read: "On February 26, 1993, a bomb set by terrorists exploded below this site. This horrible act of violence killed innocent people, injured thousands, and made victims of us all." The fountain was destroyed along with the rest of the World Trade Center during the attacks of September 11, 2001. The only piece of the fountain recovered was a fragment containing the name "John", the first name of one of the victims.  

  

The Tribute Family