FBI charges man with supplying explosive chemicals to bomber of fertility clinic in California

Published on
05/06/2025 – 0:39 GMT+2

Federal authorities in the US arrested a man they say collaborated with the bomber of a fertility clinic last month, alleging he supplied chemicals used to make explosives and travelled to California to experiment with them in the bomber’s garage months before the attack.

The blast caused extensive damage to a fertility clinic in the city of Palm Springs and shattered the windows of nearby buildings, with officials calling the attack terrorism.

The bomber from California, Guy Edward Bartkus, died in the 17 May explosion. Authorities arrested his alleged collaborator, Daniel Park of Washington state, on Tuesday after he was extradited from Poland, where he’d fled four days after the attack.

Park spent years stocking up on ammonium nitrate – a chemical that can be used to make explosives – before shipping it to Bartkus – aged 25 – and later visiting him in Twentynine Palms in the San Bernardino County of California.

He reportedly stayed there for about two weeks and the two conducted bomb-making experiments in Bartkus’ room and a detached garage, according to Akil Davis, Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) assistant director in charge.

Park, 32, was taken into custody on Tuesday night at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport. He made his first federal court appearance on Wednesday in Brooklyn.

Authorities searched Park’s home in Kent – a suburb of Seattle – and found “an explosive recipe that was similar to the Oklahoma City bombing,” Davis said.

Park shipped 180 pounds (82 kg) of ammonium nitrate in January to Bartkus and bought another 90 pounds (41 kg) of the chemical, which was shipped to the bomber’s California address just days before the attack.

The FBI says their investigation reveals that Park has been actively purchasing ammonium nitrate online in several purchases between October 2022 and May 2025.

Park and Bartkus had met in online forums dedicated to the anti-natalist movement, bonding over a “shared belief that people shouldn’t exist,” Davis said.

Anti-natalism is a fringe theory that opposes childbirth and population growth and believes people should not continue to procreate. Officials said Bartkus intentionally targeted the American Reproductive Centres, a clinic that provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilisation and fertility evaluations.

However, investigators haven’t revealed if Bartkus intended to kill himself in the attack or why he chose the specific facility. He also reportedly tried to livestream the explosion but failed, the FBI says.

Park appeared to be a frequent poster in an anti-natalist Reddit forum going back nearly a decade, according to court documents. In 2016, he spoke of recruiting others to the movement, which he described as hopeful.

“When people are lost and distraught, death is always an option,” he allegedly wrote.

More recently, this past March, Park posted in the group that he was seeking to find fellow anti-natalists in and around Washington to “start some protests or just any in-person events”. The post however did not generate any public response.

Additional sources • AP