The son of an accomplice in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing has been arrested after a standoff with police in Las Vegas.
Joshua Nichols, the 36-year-old son of Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols, was arrested on Tuesday for violating the terms of his probation, the Clark County Detention Center confirmed. Joshua Nichols has a history of arrests in Nevada dating back to 2005, and has been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, grand larceny of a stolen vehicle, resisting an officer with a weapon, among other charges, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reported.
Relatives told KLAS that Nichols has struggled for years with a drug addiction related to his guilt about his father’s involvement in the bombing. Nichols was just 12 years old at the time of the 1995 bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured 500.
Joshua Nichols’ wife, Nadine Nichols, said that her husband is a good man, but has never been able to move past the bombing. As a child, he was constantly identified as his father’s son, Nadine Nichols said.
“They teased him. They named him ‘bomber.’ They named him that, and I guess he got beat up,” Nadine said.
Nichols’ attorney, Tony Abbatangelo, told KLAS that he is hopeful that there still is a future for his client.
“That’s a difficult burden to bear, that your dad did those things,” Abbatangelo said. “These issues can be addressed. There’s still a future for Josh to be a positive member of the community.”
