OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Hundreds gathered Monday at the site where the Alfred P. Murrah federal building once stood _ staying silent for 168 seconds, marking one second for each person killed in the bombing nine years ago. Children of the victims then recited the names of the dead.
``These children, like all of you and our city, are portraits of our survival,'' Frank Hill, chairman of the foundation that supports the Oklahoma City National Memorial, told the crowd.
The commemoration Monday began at 9:02 a.m., the minute the Murrah building was destroyed by a fuel oil and fertilizer bomb on April 19, 1995.
Jason Smith, 31, read names including that of his mother, Linda McKinney, who had worked at the Secret Service office on the ninth floor.
``Even though it's been nine years and a lot of us have moved on in our lives and grown, it's nice to take a step back and remember that fateful day and honor their memory,'' he said.
Also attending were 13 family members of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many of whom have become close to those who lost loved ones in Oklahoma City.
``They're ahead of us on the path and they've kind of been pulling us along,'' said Barbara Salvadore, whose brother, New York City firefighter Lt. Peter Freund, died in the attack on the World Trade Center.
Meanwhile, security tightened at the state murder trial of bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, as prosecutors prepared for the questioning Tuesday of Michael Fortier, their star witness.
Uniformed security officers were stationed inside the Pittsburg County Courthouse, and armed federal and state officers patrolled the streets outside.
Nichols is accused of helping Timothy McVeigh build the explosive and pack it inside a truck the day before the bombing. Fortier is serving a 12-year federal prison sentence for knowing about the bomb plot and not telling authorities. He pleaded guilty following a plea agreement in which he testified against McVeigh and Nichols at their federal trials.
At Nichols' preliminary hearing on state charges in May 2003, Fortier described how McVeigh and Nichols detonated explosives in the Arizona desert and experimented with ingredients that were later used in the bombing.
Nichols, 49, is already serving a life sentence on federal convictions for his role in the bombing. He is now on trial for 161 counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of the other 160 victims and one victim's fetus.
McVeigh was convicted on federal bombing charges and executed in 2001.
