LOS ANGELES — Investigators on Monday were combing through the writings of a 25-year-old man believed responsible for an explosion that ripped through a Southern California fertility clinic over the weekend.
The FBI identified Guy Edward Bartkus as the suspect in the apparent car bomb detonation Saturday that damaged the American Reproductive Centers building in Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles.
Authorities called the attack terrorism and said Bartkus left behind nihilistic writings that indicated views against procreation, an idea known as anti-natalism.
Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, called it possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.” There were no patients at the facility and all embryos were saved.
The clinic he attacked provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations.
LOS ANGELES — On Monday, investigators were going through the writings of a 25-year-old man who is thought to be the culprit behind the explosion that destroyed a fertility clinic in Southern California over the weekend.
In the apparent car bomb explosion that damaged the American Reproductive Centers building in Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles, on Saturday, the FBI named Guy Edward Bartkus as the suspect. The blast claimed Bartkus’ life. Not a single embryo in the facility was harmed.
Authorities referred to the attack as terrorism and claimed that Bartkus left behind nihilistic writings that expressed anti-nativist views, or opposition to procreation.
The explosion destroyed the clinic and broke the windows of buildings nearby on a street lined with palm trees. People were screaming in fear and glass was all over the sidewalks of the affluent desert city when passersby reported hearing a loud boom.
The body of Bartkus was discovered close to a burned-out car.
According to FBI Los Angeles field office assistant director in charge Akil Davis, it may have been the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.”. “.”.
The facility had no patients, and every embryo was preserved.
“The IVF facility was the target of this targeted attack,” Davis stated on Sunday. Please understand that, as I stated yesterday, we are treating this as a deliberate act of terrorism. “.”.
Bartkus’ hometown of Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 people northeast of Palm Springs with a large U shape, was the site of a search warrant executed by authorities. S. Marine Corps installation.
The FBI claimed that Bartkus’ attempt to livestream the explosion was unsuccessful.
Specifics regarding the explosives used to make the bomb and the possible source of Bartkus’s acquisition have not been disclosed by authorities.
More information about Bartkus’ intentions was being sought by authorities. They haven’t revealed why he picked the particular facility or whether he planned to commit suicide during the attack.
According to U, his writings conveyed “nihilistic ideations” that were still being investigated to ascertain his mental state. S. The region’s leading federal prosecutor is lawyer Bill Essayli. Generally speaking, nihilism implies that life has no purpose.
He seemed to have anti-natalist beliefs, such as the conviction that having children is immoral. He targeted a clinic that offered fertility tests and in vitro fertilization as ways to help people become pregnant.
Adam Lankford, a criminology professor at the University of Alabama, admitted that some people who hold extreme anti-procreation views lack direction and feel hopeless about their own lives, “and they diagnose society as suffering in a similar way that they are.”. In essence, they believe that there is no hope and that we are all doomed. “”.
Lankford stated on Monday that attackers use that hopelessness as an excuse for their violent behavior.
