'The bomber had help': Arrest made in Palm Springs fertility clinic explosion
PALM SPRINGS, CA — Federal authorities arrested a Washington state man accused of aiding the bomber who targeted a Southern California fertility clinic last month, in what the FBI has called an intentional act of terrorism.
Daniel Park, 32, of Washington state, was arrested in Poland and taken into custody by the FBI at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI announced during a news conference on June 4. Authorities accused Park of collaborating with suspect Guy Edward Bartkus, who died in the May 17 explosion.
"During the investigation, law enforcement learned of Bartkus' pro-mortalist, anti-natalist and anti-pro-life extremist ideology," U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at the news conference. "We also learned that the bomber had help."
Park, who is a U.S. citizen, was arrested on suspicion of providing material support to a terrorist, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The FBI alleged Park shipped ammonium nitrate to Bartkus and visited him in January and February this year.
U.S. Marshals arrested Park at the airport on June 3 after he returned to the United States from Poland, according to Essayli and Ciaran McEvoy, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Authorities said Park had traveled to Europe four days after the suicide bombing and was detained in Poland on May 30.
Park was later ordered to be deported to the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Though it was not immediately known why Park had traveled to Poland, authorities said he was not in Southern California on the day of the bombing.
At his appearance on June 4 in federal court in Brooklyn, Park consented to be detained and transferred to California in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
What happened in the fertility clinic bombing?
On May 17, a powerful explosion occurred in Palm Springs in a parking lot near the American Reproductive Centers, a fertility clinic that provides in vitro fertilization treatment. The explosion caused the partial collapse of the building and damaged others within several blocks.
Federal authorities said Bartkus, 25, drove a car containing an explosive device to the clinic, according to a federal complaint, obtained by the Desert Sun, part of the USA TODAY Network. Bartkus died in the blast, which left four others injured.
The explosion was heard and felt as far as 2 miles from the scene. While some buildings were severely damaged, the fertility clinic said all its staff were safe, and no eggs or embryos were harmed.
Akil Davis, assistant director of the Los Angeles FBI field office, called the incident "one of the largest bombing investigations we've had in Southern California." Davis compared the blast to the scale of the Aliso Viejo bombing in Orange County in 2018.
The city estimated that the blast caused between $6 million and $12 million in damage.
Palm Springs is a tony resort city located in the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. The city is more than 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Complaint: Alleged accomplice stocked up on chemicals for years
The complaint alleges that Park had spent years stocking up on chemicals. Online records show that Park made six separate purchases totaling 275 pounds of ammonium nitrate between October 2022 and May 2025, according to the complaint.
Davis said at the June 4 news conference that Park shipped six packages of the ammonium nitrate to Bartkus in the days leading up to the bombing. Park had shipped about 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate in January and then paid for an additional 90 pounds that were sent to Bartkus in May, according to the complaint.
The complaint detailed that Park also visited Bartkus' home in Twentynine Palms, about 58 miles northeast of Palm Springs, and stayed for roughly two weeks. The complaint alleged that three days before visiting, Bartkus researched how to make "powerful explosions using ammonium nitrate and fuel."
"According to BARTKUS's family members, during PARK's stay with BARTKUS, PARK and BARTKUS were 'running experiments' in BARTKUS's detached garage," the complaint added. "After the bombing, FBI recovered large quantities of chemical precursors and laboratory equipment in the detached garage."
Following the bombing, federal authorities executed search warrants at Park's residence in Kent, a suburb of Seattle, according to the complaint. Authorities discovered large quantities of chemicals at the residence and recipes for explosives, including some for explosive mixtures containing ammonium nitrate and fuel.
Park had an explosives recipe similar to the one used to conduct the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people and injured 684, Essayli said.
Prosecutors: Park shared the suspect's 'extremist ideologies'
At the time of the incident, Davis said investigators believe Bartkus targeted the fertility clinic based on his online posts and "nihilistic ideations." Nihilism is defined in Webster's Dictionary as a "viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless."
The complaint against Park revealed that in an online manifesto, Bartkus acknowledged that by bombing the clinic, he was "causing destruction and probably possibly death." Bartkus also allegedly explained in the manifesto why he targeted the clinic, saying, "IVF is like kinda the epitome of pro-life ideology," according to the complaint.
During the June 4 news conference, Essayli said Park shared "Bartkus' extremist beliefs." According to Davis, the two shared a belief that people should not exist.
Davis said that, like Bartkus, Park posted about his beliefs on online forums as far back as 2016. The forums were titled "promortalism" and "antinatalism," according to the complaint.
Anti-natalism is defined in Webster's Dictionary as a philosophical view deeming procreation to be "unethical or unjustifiable."
Relatives told federal investigators that Park has made "statements consistent with pro-mortalism ideology" since high school, according to the complaint. More recently, the complaint says Park made a public post on a forum seeking fellow anti-natalists in and around Washington state to "start some protests or just any in-person events."
Contributing: The Desert Sun; Reuters
(This story was updated to add new information.)