Authorities Say Suspect In California Fertility Clinic Bombing Left Behind ‘Anti-Pro-Life’ Writings | EUROtoday

A 25-year-old man the FBI believes was answerable for an explosion that ripped by way of a Southern California fertility clinic left behind “anti-pro-life” writings earlier than finishing up an assault investigators known as terrorism, authorities stated Sunday.

Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, California, was recognized by the FBI because the suspect within the obvious automobile bomb detonation Saturday that broken the clinic within the upscale metropolis of Palm Springs within the desert east of Los Angeles. His writings appeared to point anti-natalist views, which maintain that individuals shouldn’t proceed to procreate, authorities stated.

The blast gutted the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic and shattered the home windows of close by buildings alongside a palm tree-lined road. Witnesses described a loud increase adopted by a chaotic scene, with individuals screaming in terror and glass strewn alongside the sidewalk and road.

Investigators stated Barktus died within the blast, which a senior FBI official known as probably the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.” A physique was discovered close to a charred car exterior the clinic.

Bartkus tried to livestream the explosion and left behind writings that communicated “nihilistic ideations” that have been nonetheless being examined to find out his way of thinking, stated Akil Davis, the assistant director accountable for the FBI’s Los Angeles subject workplace. U.S. Attorney Bilal “Bill” Essayli, the highest federal prosecutor within the space, known as the message “anti-pro-life.”

“This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,” Davis stated Sunday. “Make no mistake: we are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”

The bombing injured 4 different individuals, although Davis stated all embryos on the facility have been saved.

“Good guys one, bad guys zero,” he stated.

Authorities have been executing a search warrant in Twentynine Palms, a metropolis of 28,000 residents about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Palm Springs, as a part of the investigation.

“Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients,” Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, instructed The Associated Press in a telephone interview Saturday.

Associated Press author Christopher Weber contributed from Los Angeles.