Man charged in Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing after being arrested by FBI at New York's JFK airport
A man was charged Wednesday in connection with last month's bombing outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, after being apprehended in Europe and flown to New York City, where he was arrested overnight by the FBI, authorities said.
Daniel Park, 32, of Washington state is charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bilal Essayli, announced during a news conference.
Park is accused of shipping approximately 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate — commonly used as a precursor to construct homemade explosives — to the bomber, who was identified by officials as 25-year-old Guy Bartkus. Bartkus died in the blast outside the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic on May 17. Four other people were injured in the explosion.
Essayli said evidence shows Park and Bartkus shared extremist beliefs.
According to the criminal complaint filed Wednesday, "Bartkus's attack was motivated by his pro-mortalism, anti-natalism, and anti-pro-life ideology, which is the belief that individuals should not be born without their consent and that non-existence is best."
FBI Assistant Director Akil Davis, in charge of the bureau's Los Angeles field office, told reporters that Park had posted about his beliefs on internet forums dating back to 2016. Park's social media posts indicated he was trying to recruit people of like-minded ideology and discuss it online, Davis said. The FBI hasn't confirmed how Park and Bartkus met, Davis said, adding that the investigation was ongoing.
Investigators said Park also paid for an additional 90 pounds of ammonium nitrate that was shipped to Bartkus in the days leading up to the bombing. There hasn't been an indication that other locations were targeted, Davis said.
Park spent approximately two weeks visiting Bartkus' residence in Twentynine Palms, California, in late January and early February and ran "experiments" in his garage, Essayli said.
Davis said Park was charged because of his contributions to the bomb.
"Park was in possession of an explosive recipe that was similar to the Oklahoma City bombing," Davis told reporters, referring to the 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. "We believe that Park had knowledge of how to create an ANFO bomb, ammonium-nitrate-fuel-oil bomb."
Park, a U.S. citizen, flew to Warsaw, Poland, on May 21, a few days after the bombing, Davis said. Polish authorities detained Park at the request of U.S. officials on Friday. He was flown back to the U.S. and taken into custody by the FBI at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport overnight.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was involved in discussions around Park and the investigation before and during her trip this week to Poland, according to a Justice Department official. She was monitoring the status of the case and met with Polish government officials while in Warsaw.
"Bringing chaos and violence to a facility that exists to help women and mothers is a particularly cruel, disgusting crime that strikes at the very heart of our shared humanity," . "We are grateful to our partners in Poland who helped get this man back to America and we will prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law."
During a brief hearing Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, Park acknowledged to a judge that he knew the charges against him and waived his rights to other hearings in New York. He was ordered to be detained at a federal facility in Brooklyn until he's sent to California. He is expected to be prosecuted in Los Angeles.
Four Polish border guards were with Park when he was taken back to the U.S., and two members of the FBI flying squad were also on the flight, according to two senior U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the investigation. Park consented to speak with the FBI at JFK and was interviewed by them there.
Police in Palm Springs said the bomber backed his Ford Fusion into a parking spot outside the clinic before the powerful explosion left a crater on the morning of May 17. The explosion could be felt more than a mile away from the blast zone, the FBI said.
The vehicle exploded outside American Reproductive Centers, a fertility clinic with a full-service IVF lab that did not perform abortions. The blast caused significant damage to the building. The facility also lost power, but it was restored in time so no embryos were lost in the attack. The clinic reopened about two weeks later at a new location.
The FBI believed that the bombing was premeditated and called the attack an "intentional act of terrorism."
Detectives said they believed Bartkus acted alone at the site of the attack, but said they were scouring his online chats to learn whether anyone helped him buy parts or refine the design of the bomb.
Investigators said the blast pattern shows that the device was far more damaging than a low-grade explosive such as fireworks.
The FBI said Bartkus had access to a large quantity of commercially available chemical products that could be combined to create a homemade explosive device.
Twentynine Palms is home to a large Marine Corps base about an hour's drive from Palm Springs.
