A suspect linked to the bombing at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, last month has died in federal custody, the Bureau of Prisons revealed Tuesday.
Daniel Park, 32, from Seattle, was charged earlier this month in connection with the bombing. He was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, the agency said in a statement.
Staff responded and initiated life-saving measures, and emergency medical personnel took Park to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the agency. The cause of death was not immediately apparent. The Bureau of Prisons noted that no staff members or other incarcerated people were injured.
Park was a U.S. citizen who arrived at the detention center on June 13 following his indictment on malicious destruction of property. After traveling to Denmark and then onto Warsaw a few days after the bombing, he was detained in Poland earlier this month. The bombing took place at the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic on May 17. Park was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York after being deported from Poland.
Park was accused of shipping around 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate to the bombing suspect, identified as Guy Bartkus, 25, who died in the explosion. Ammonium nitrate is usually used as a precursor to make homemade explosives. Four people were injured in the blast.
The 32-year-old is alleged to have spent two weeks visiting Bartkus in late January and February as they conducted bomb-making experiments.
Akil Davis, the FBI assistant director in charge, claimed Park and Bartkus found one another on online forums discussing the anti-natalist movement — which asserts that humans should stop reproducing — and connected over a “shared belief that people shouldn't exist.”
Officials said that Bartkus targeted the fertility clinic as part of a terror attack. He left behind written materials indicating that he was against people being born against their will, pushing for the end of childbirth and eventual human extinction. The FBI noted that he tried and failed to livestream the blast.
The explosion severely damaged the clinic and blew out the windows of buildings in the area. Witnesses said they heard a loud boom and described chaotic scenes with a body found near a charred car outside the clinic.
Investigators have yet to say if Bartkus intended to take his life as part of the attack or why he selected that particular clinic, which provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations.
Davis has noted that authorities conducted a search of Park’s Seattle home and found “an explosive recipe that was similar to the Oklahoma City bombing.”
Retired ATF explosives expert Scott Sweetow previously said that the damage led him to believe that the suspect had used a “high explosive” similar to TNT or dynamite instead of a “low explosive” such as gun powder.
He added that while such explosives are usually difficult for civilians to get hold of, more and more people are figuring out how to make explosives at home.
“Once you know the chemistry involved, it’s pretty easy to get stuff,” he said. “The ingredients you could get at a grocery store.”
Davis said the explosion may have been the “largest bombing scene that we've had in Southern California.” The blast was felt as far as a mile away.
Park appeared in court in New York on a charge of providing material support to terrorists before he was sent on to California earlier this month. He wore a T-shirt with the words “fight like Ukrainians,” and his right hand was bandaged. He waived his right to a detention hearing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
