Investigators on Sunday identified a 25-year-old man as the suspect in the bombing outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, Calif., as they searched for the motive behind the blast that damaged several blocks downtown and, they believe, killed him as well.
The suspect, Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, Calif., had “nihilistic ideations,” authorities said, and had specifically targeted the clinic. Officials called the bombing an act of terrorism and said they were examining writings that could be related to the attack, which happened on Saturday.
On a website that promotes the idea of terminating life, an audio recording features a man who said he was going to bomb an in vitro fertilization clinic because he was angry at his own existence.
Three people familiar with the investigation said agents are examining that website to try to verify whether the bomber had made those statements.
On Sunday, Richard Bartkus, 75, the father of the suspect, said he believed the voice on the recording was his son’s. Mr. Bartkus, of Yucca Valley, Calif., said that he had not seen his son in 10 years and that he had no idea his son had held opinions of the kind voiced on the recording. Earlier, Mr. Bartkus had said he was shocked when a relative texted him on Saturday that his son had been implicated in the bombing.
Although officials did not say that Guy Bartkus was the lone suspect, they did say that they were not actively searching for others. They also said on Sunday that there was no continuing threat to the community involving this attack.
Mr. Bartkus described his son as having been a boy who liked tinkering with small model rockets, and said that in September 2009, at age 9, his son lit the family home on fire while playing with matches. “He burned the house down in Yucca Valley,” he said.
An article about the fire in The Hi-Desert Star of Yucca Valley said that the family lost everything, though Mr. Bartkus said no one was hurt. His son was placed on juvenile probation, but the incident was later expunged from his record, he said.
Mr. Bartkus said that as a teenager, his son would make “stink bombs” and “smoke bombs.”
“Nothing major, nothing like a ‘bomb’ bomb, but he’d build rockets, shoot them in the air,” Mr. Bartkus said.
In 2016, a court ordered the son to enter therapy, though the reason and circumstances of the case are unclear.
Mr. Bartkus said that his son was impressionable, and had often allowed himself to be drawn in by friends who got him into trouble. Once, for example, a friend whose parents owned a wrecking yard talked his son into smashing cars there, Mr. Bartkus said.
He said that when his son reached his late teens, he built computers and worked with special-needs children as an aide to a local bus driver.
“He wasn’t dumb,” Mr. Bartkus said. “But he wasn’t a leader. He was a follower.” He added, “If somebody came along and said this was a good idea, he’d probably go along with it.”
Ideas espoused on the website with the recording about plans to bomb an I.V.F. clinic are associated with an obscure movement that both promotes death and discourages creation of new life, said Brian Levin, professor emeritus and founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
“Within this movement, I.V.F. is certainly disfavored, but so is procreative sex,” Mr. Levin said. “He probably targeted an establishment that was most directly related in some way to this twisted take on that philosophy.”
Mr. Levin said that the ideology could appeal to people who are suffering from isolation or other mental health challenges and seeking an “institutional framework for these grievances.” Domestic terrorism is often perpetrated, he said, by socially isolated young men who become radicalized in fringe online communities.
“Our terrorism problem is as much of a mental health issue as it is an ideological one,” Mr. Levin said.
On Sunday, residents and tourists strolled through downtown Palm Springs, enjoying brunch on patios and browsing in gift shops. Just north of downtown, several streets around the clinic were blocked off as investigators sifted through a debris field that included car parts and human remains.
Nearly 60 miles away in Twentynine Palms, there were also street closures around a neighborhood near a home that Mr. Bartkus identified as the home of Dianne Bartkus, his former wife and the suspect’s mother. Several unmarked vehicles were parked in the middle of the road in an area where authorities said they executed a search warrant.
The explosion on Saturday shattered windows in businesses and homes in Palm Springs, and it sent vehicle fragments flying hundreds of feet in the air and across several blocks, officials said.
“This is probably the largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California,” said Akil Davis, assistant director of the F.B.I.’s Los Angeles field office.
The four people who were hurt had minor injuries and have been released from the hospital, officials said on Sunday.
The realization that a fertility clinic would be a target for violence rocked some patients over the weekend.
Vanda Chatterjee, a 39-year-old graphic designer in Palm Springs, said she had recently received surgery at the clinic and was scheduled to return in a few months for egg retrieval.
“The clinic has been a place of joyful anticipation for us, a space grounded in compassion, science and warmth,” she said.
Ms. Chatterjee said she was disturbed that someone would try to impose their nihilistic views on couples who are hoping to have a baby.
“This wasn’t just an attack on a building,” she said. “It was an attack on life itself, and on the families who turn to medicine, science and love to create it.”
Devlin Barrett contributed reporting. Jack Begg contributed research.
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
Shawn Hubler is The Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief, reporting on the news, trends and personalities of Southern California.
Jesus Jiménez is a Times reporter covering Southern California.
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