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Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, California, was
identified by the FBI as the suspect in the apparent car bomb
detonation Saturday that damaged the clinic in the upscale city
of Palm Springs in the desert east of Los Angeles. His writings
seemed to indicate anti-natalist views, which hold that people
should not continue to procreate, authorities said.
The blast gutted the American Reproductive Centers fertility
clinic 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.
Investigators said Barktus died in the blast, which a senior FBI
official called possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve
had in Southern California.” A body was found near a charred
vehicle outside the clinic.
Bartkus attempted to livestream the explosion and left behind
writings that communicated “nihilistic ideations” that were
still being examined to determine his state of mind, said Akil
Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles
field office. U.S. Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, the top
federal prosecutor in the area, called the message
“anti-pro-life.”
“This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,” Davis
said Sunday. “Make no mistake: we are treating this, as I said
yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”
The bombing injured four other people, though Davis said all
embryos at the facility were saved.
“Good guys one, bad guys zero,” he said.
Authorities were executing a search warrant in Twentynine Palms,
a city of 28,000 residents about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of
Palm Springs, as part of the investigation.
“Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients,”
Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, told The Associated
Press in a phone interview Saturday.
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Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed from Los
Angeles.
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