Former OKC Police Chief Sam Gonzales, who led department during bombing, dies at 82

Former Oklahoma City Police Chief Sam Gonzales, who led the department during the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, died Monday from undisclosed causes at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. He was 82.

Gonzales was a police recruit in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

He told The Oklahoman in 1996, “I thought then that was the biggest thing I'd ever be involved in.”

Gonzales spent 27 years in Dallas, which included overseeing detectives working in such divisions as crimes, property, youth and family crimes, intelligence and narcotics.

He resigned as the police department's assistant police chief when he was appointed Oklahoma City chief on Aug. 24, 1991. He was the first chief to be promoted to the top job from outside the Oklahoma City Police Department.

On the day of the Oklahoma City bombing, Gonzales was at an allergy clinic when the building shook. He recalled thinking an elevator had fallen in the building. When he called communications, he was informed there had been an explosion downtown.

"I walked up in the front of the building on 5th Street and all of a sudden there's a crater that's probably 30 feet round and 15 feet deep, (and) the realization comes to you, if you're in law enforcement, it's a bomb,” he told The Oklahoman. “It's the sickest feeling that I've ever had, knowing that this wasn't just an accident."

Alongside department personnel, Gonzales worked up to 14 hours a day at the bomb site.

Former Chief Bill Citty told The Oklahoman this week Gonzales’ ability to build relationships was a key part of the department’s response to the bombing.

“He was the kind of police chief who liked to put qualified people in place and let them do their jobs,” Citty said.

In 1998, he retired from the department. Gonzales said he wanted to be remembered “as a person of honesty and integrity” who kept his word “and always was thinking of what's best for the department."

That same year he was tapped to serve as the special assistant to the chief of the FBI Domestic Terrorism/Counterterrorism Planning Section, working out of the FBI's field office in Dallas.

The domestic terrorism branch of the FBI's National Security Division was formed shortly after the Murrah Building bombing.

"Chief Gonzales' outstanding leadership in the law enforcement response to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City makes him uniquely qualified to assist in the development of a coordinated and effective interagency response to WMD (weapons of mass destruction) incidents," then-FBI Director Louis Freeh said.

Police Chief Wade Gourley said the department was saddened to hear about Gonzales’ death.

“Chief Gonzales steered this department through the dark days in the aftermath of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, where his professionalism and leadership were second to none,” Gourley said in a statement. “Our deepest condolences go out to his family and those who loved him. He will be sorely missed.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC police Chief Sam Gonzales in charge during bombing dies at 82