An explosion tore through a fertility clinic in the upscale California city of Palm Springs, leaving one person believed to be the suspect dead in an attack the FBI characterised as terrorism.
A burned-out vehicle was seen in the parking lot behind the clinic after the blast, which caved in the building's roof, sprayed debris across a five-lane road and shattered windows in businesses blocks away. The clinic was closed for the weekend, and the doctor who leads it said its staffers were safe.
“Make no mistake: This is an intentional act of terrorism,” Akil Davis, the head of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, told an evening news conference. He declined to say how authorities reached that conclusion.
A law enforcement official said investigators recovered an AK-47-style rifle from the scene.
Authorities were still working to confirm the identity of the person killed, Davis said. Four people were hurt, but authorities provided no details on the severity of those injuries, how they occurred or where. Davis said law enforcement was also looking into the possibility that the explosion was livestreamed.
The act was being investigated as a possible car explosion, according to two other law enforcement officials briefed on the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss preliminary information from an ongoing investigation.
The blast gutted the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic, in a single-story building along a five-lane street lined with palm trees. Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, said that the explosion damaged the practice’s office space, where it conducts consultations with patients. The clinic's IVF lab and stored embryos are offsite and were not damaged.
“Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients," Abdallah said.
Palm Springs Mayor Pro Tem Naomi Soto called the clinic “a place of hope.”
“This is a building that people go to to start or expand their families,” she said. “We acknowledge their pain and concern across the community for the patients and staff."
The Trump administration condemned the attack.
“The Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable.”
