Palm Springs — The suspect in the bombing of a Palm Springs fertility clinic that injured four people was tentatively identified Sunday by the FBI as Guy Edwards Bartkus, 25.
The bombing suspect appears to have been killed in the Saturday morning explosion at American Reproductive Centers, according to Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. FBI officials said they were investigating the incident as an “act of intentional terrorism.”
Law enforcement sources told The Times they believed the suspect was “anti-life” and reacting to the recent death of a friend.
An online website that contained no name, but appeared connected to the bombing, laid out the case for “a war against pro-lifers” and said a fertilization clinic would be targeted.
“Here you can download the recorded stream of my suicide & bombing of an IVF clinic,” the site began, but no such file existed. It extolled a hodge-podge of philosophies, from “abolitionist veganism,” the opposition to all animal use by humans, and “negative utilitarianism,” the idea that we should act to minimize suffering rather than maximize pleasure in the world.
“Basically, I’m a pro-mortalist,” the author wrote, referring to a fringe philosophical position that it is best for sentient beings to die as soon as possible to prevent future suffering.
The Times could not independently confirm that Bartkus created the website. Domain data show the site was created in February.
FBI assistant director Akil Davis said Sunday the suspect “had nihilistic ideations, and this was a targeted attack against the IVF facility.” He declined to verify whether the manifesto was written by the suspect, adding his team was “tracking a possible manifesto out there, and it’s part of our ongoing investigation.”
Accompanying the website was a 30-minute audio file, labeled “pre,” that began with the speaker saying he would explain “why I’ve decided to bomb an IVF building or clinic.”
“Basically, it just comes down to I’m angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here,” the speaker said.
The fertility clinic, surrounded by other medical buildings, was closed at the time of the bombing. Although the bomb ripped the building in half. the clinic’s director said no embryos were harmed.
“Our lab—including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials—remains fully secure and undamaged,” the business said in a statement posted online. “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.”
On both the website and hidden in the site’s underlying code, the author referenced the recent death of a person the writer claimed as a close friend, “Sophie.” The references match the April 20 death of a Washington woman allegedly shot by her partner at — he says — her request.
A law enforcement bulletin reviewed by The Times said the suspect appeared to become more depressed after the recent death of a female friend.
Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino, said the suspect appeared to be part of a growing movement of idiosyncratic lone actors radicalized on obscure Internet sites and misinformation.
“We’re seeing the violent extremism landscape be seriously influenced by lone actors, a freewheeling and broad social media, and an idiosyncratic wave, from these loners who are able to either glom onto segments of existing broad movements, or find a niche in a particularly obscure one.”
Historically, Levin said, it would be harder for an individual to have an obscure ideology validated and legitimized and gain the knowledge to carry out such an attack.
“Today, we basically have a DIY ecosystem where lone folks can engage in conduct that previously tilted more towards groups and small cells,” Levin said. “”There’s a whole cauldron that involves radicalization, misinformation, legitimization of violence as a method within this grievance set and that’s what you have.
“The ability to get radicalized, as well as the ability to actually gain the technical know-how, along with a hot-button anger-inducing social media landscape — this is the world we’re living in,” he added. “And unfortunately, California has seen all kinds of aspects of this.”
Investigators were at Bartkus’ house within hours of Saturday’s explosion.
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies asked residents on one end of the community to leave their homes as they cleared a blast radius, then waited on a judge’s warrant to search a house tied to the suspected bomber.
An online address directory showed the house had been used by Bartkus since 2019.
Directly across the street lived Jeanette Hogan, who said she did not know the Bartkus name, and had not seen occupants in the house for several months. “We’ve never seen him out and about, so this is all like shocking to us,” Hogan said. “It’s a bit unsettling to know our neighbor was doing something so evil.
“Thank goodness it was a Saturday and that they didn’t have any patients.”
Thomas Bickel, who lived directly behind the suspect’s home, also said he had never seen Bartkus. He said sheriff’s deputies at about 1 p.m. asked him to leave his house, and he decamped to The Cactus Bar to wait out the search.
Eight hours later, Bickel was still there, nursing a beer on the patio while watching federal agents down the street walk in and out of the suspect’s house. At one point, they sent a robot into the house, while drones and a helicopter hovered overhead.
An FBI agent whose car was parked at the perimeter told Bickel the bomb used in Palm Springs was “large.” An Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, Bickel said he was familiar with the destructive power of roadside bombs.
“I’m not saying this in a positive way,” he said, “but it was somebody who knew what they were doing,”
The car blast was so large it tore through the clinic and sent debris blocks away, breaking windows in a nearby hospital while propelling the suspect’s crumpled vehicle in the other direction across a back parking lot.
Nick Jacob Sivetz was about nine blocks away at the Graffiti Yard when he heard the explosion. He said his roommate at his home, about six miles away, also heard the blast.
Sivetz ran to the scene to find businesses with their windows blown out, debris strewn across the road. Amid the confusion, he said, many residents thought there had been a gas explosion.
“I would say the entire city was shook,” Sivetz said. “It was surprising for a lot of people, especially in a quiet city like this.”
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