ATLANTA - Former security guard Richard Jewell, who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing and later served as a police officer in Jefferson and Pendergrass, has died.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says that Jewell, 44, was found dead in his west Georgia home Wednesday.
Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley says Jewell died at 9 a.m. of natural causes.
Worley says Jewell had been at home sick since the end of February with kidney problems.
GBI spokesman John Bankhead says there will be an autopsy Thursday.
Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park and moving people out of harm's way just before a bomb exploded.
The blast killed an Albany woman and injured more than 100.
The frenzy that changed Jewell's life started three days after the bombing with a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that described him as ``the focus'' of the investigation.
He was never arrested or charged, although he was questioned and was a subject of search warrants. Eighty-eight days after the initial report, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Jewell was ``not a target'' of the bombing investigation.
Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph eventually pleaded guilty to the park bombing and others and is serving life in prison.
As recently as last year, Jewell was working as a sheriff's deputy in Meriwether County and before that with several Georgia police departments, including the ones in Pendergrass and Jefferson.
He was also a former security guard at Piedmont College in Demorest.
Monday
June 2nd, 2025
9:00AM
