Honor for Atlanta Olympics Bombing Hero

(ATR) Once a suspect, Richard Jewell is recognized for his heroics in Centennial Olympic Park.

Richard Jewell, working as a security guard in the park the night of the July 27 bombing during the Atlanta Olympics, will receive a plaque in his honor next March. Jewell moved people out of the way of a suspicious backpack left at a bench in the park before it exploded.

While nearly 200 people were injured and there were two fatalities associated with the bombing, Jewell’s actions are credited with saving more people from harm. But soon after, Jewell was labeled as a suspect by investigators with his name leaked to the media. He was hounded for weeks afterward by police and press until the FBI issued a statement that Jewell wasn’t a suspect in the attack.

Jewell resumed his law enforcement career in a small town south of Atlanta after the Olympic controversysubsided. He died in 2007, age 44.

The Georgia World Congress Center, owner of the park, decided recently that Jewell deserved recognition for his service. A plaque honoring him will be dedicated March 2, 2020. The plaque will go in the area of the park which already contains memorials to the two fatalities in the bombing.

Jewell is about to get even more immediate recognition.

He’s the subject of a book, The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle, by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen. Publication date is Nov. 12.

Next month the movie "Richard Jewell" is scheduled for release. It is directed by Clint Eastwood.

Eric Robert Rudolph was apprehended five years after the bombing and convicted for the crime as well as other bombings. He is serving a life sentence in a federal prison.

Reported by Ed Hula.