The FBI arrested a man in connection with last month’s bombing of a facility clinic in Palm Springs, California, US authorities said on Wednesday.
Daniel Park, a 32-year-old US citizen who lives in Kent, Washington, was taken into custody at John F Kennedy airport in New York on Tuesday after he was deported from Poland, said Bill Essayli, a US attorney for California, at a press conference. Park allegedly provided materials for explosives to the person who carried out the bombing, which officials have described as the largest incident of its kind in southern California. Authorities believe the bomber died in the blast.
The attack on the fertility clinic was carried out by Guy Edward Bartkus, who was also killed in the explosion, according to the FBI. Officials allege that Park shipped more than 180lbs of ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound commonly used as fertilizer but also used for explosives, to Bartkus before the attack.
Authorities have described Bartkus as a member of the anti-natalist movement, a fringe group that opposes childbirth and population growth and believes people should not continue to procreate. Officials said he intentionally targeted the fertility clinic as an act of terrorism. He tried to livestream the explosion, but the attempt failed, the FBI says.
The blast gutted the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic in Palms Springs and shattered the windows of nearby buildings along a palm tree-lined street. Witnesses described a loud boom followed by a chaotic scene, with people screaming in terror and glass strewn along the sidewalk and street. A body was found near a charred vehicle outside the clinic.
Investigators have not said if he intended to kill himself in the attack or why he chose the specific facility. The clinic he attacked provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations.
Officials with the FBI and the US attorney’s office said on Wednesday that they believe Bartkus and Park shared anti-natalist views and that Park had visited Bartkus for several weeks earlier this year, during which time investigators believe they conducted experiments related to the bomb.
Authorities executed a search warrant in Bartkus’s home town of Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 residents north-east of Palm Springs with a large US Marine Corps base. Officials had also executed a warrant at Park’s residence in Seattle, where they found “an explosive recipe that was similar to the Oklahoma City bombing”, said Akil Davis, the FBI assistant director in charge, on Wednesday.
Park traveled to Poland days after the bombing but was removed from the country on Tuesday and deported back to the US, where he was arrested. He is expected to be transported to California in the coming weeks, Essayli said.
A senior FBI official called the explosion possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in southern California”.
Scott Sweetow, a retired ATF explosives expert, said the amount of damage caused indicated that the suspect used a “high explosive” similar to dynamite and TNT rather than a “low explosive” like gun powder.
Those types of explosives are normally difficult for civilians to access, but increasingly people are finding ways to concoct explosives at home, he said.
“Once you know the chemistry involved, it’s pretty easy to get stuff,” Sweetow said. “The ingredients you could get at a grocery store.”
The images of the aftermath also showed that the explosion appeared to blow from the street straight through the building and to the parking lot on the other side, something that could have been intentional or pure luck, Sweetow said. A part of the car was also blown through the building and landed in the back by a dumpster.
