1971 L.A. federal building bombing

On January 28, 1971, at 4:30 p.m. PST,[1] an explosion in the second-floor men's room of the 300 North Los Angeles Street federal building in California, United States, killed 18-year-old employee Tomas Ortiz,[2] a resident of City Terrace.

[5] The coroner declared his cause of death was a combination of skull fractures, brain lacerations, and blood loss from the leg injuries.

[3] The morning after the explosion, the Los Angeles Times reported, "An investigation was underway to see if Ortiz was involved in placing the bomb in the building.

[4] On Sunday, law enforcement told the L.A. Times that there was no obvious "militancy" in Ortiz's background and "absolutely no evidence" that he was involved in planting the bomb.

[4] In April 1971, Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty suggested that there was a connection between the federal building bomb and a Chicano Moratorium march that had occurred the same weekend.

Investigators collect evidence from the site of the explosion ( Herald Examiner , No. 00079284 via Haynes Foundation and TESSA Digital Collections, Los Angeles Public Library )