A 25-year-old man the FBI believes was responsible for an explosion that ripped through a Southern California fertility clinic left behind 鈥渁nti-pro-life鈥 writings before carrying out an attack investigators are calling an act of terrorism, authorities said Sunday.
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.
Investigators believe Barktus died in the blast, which a senior FBI official called possibly the 鈥渓argest bombing scene that we鈥檝e had in Southern California.鈥 A body was found near a charred vehicle outside the clinic.
Bartkus attempted to livestream the explosion and left behind writings that communicated 鈥渘ihilistic ideations鈥 that were still being examined to determine his state of mind, said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI鈥檚 Los Angeles field office. U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area, called the writings 鈥渁nti-pro-life.鈥
The Associated Press reported Saturday night that those writings professed a sentiment that the world should not be populated.
鈥淭his was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,鈥 Davis said Sunday. 鈥淢ake no mistake: we are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.鈥
The bombing injured four other people, though Davis said all embryos at the facility were saved.
鈥淕ood guys one, bad guys zero,鈥 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.
The suspect posted writings online and attempted to record the explosion, though authorities said the video failed to upload. An official who was not authorized to discuss details of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity to the AP.
The blast gutted the single-story American Reproductive Centers clinic, though a doctor said its staff members were safe.
鈥淭hank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients,鈥 Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, told the AP in a phone interview Saturday. 鈥- Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.
