TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — Authorities are investigating what appear to be radical views the Palm Springs bombing suspect expressed online in the months before Saturday’s attack at a fertility clinic.
The FBI confirmed it was reviewing a manifesto and other content to determine whether they were the work of Guy Edward Bartkus, a 25-year-old “with nihilistic ideations” who they believe was killed in the blast. One reason for the interest in the manifesto is that its author explicitly threatened an attack on a fertility clinic.
Bartkus is suspected of detonating a massive bomb outside the American Reproductive Centers, causing extensive damage.
What do we know about Bartkus?
Bartkus lived in Twentynine Palms, which is home to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, touted as the world’s largest Marine Corps training base.
Bartkus was not a Marine, said Yvonne Carlock, a Marine spokesperson for manpower and reserve affairs. The Times could not yet verify whether Bartkus had any other affiliation with the base that might allow him to access explosives.
As authorities cleared out his neighborhood this weekend for an extensive search, neighbors interviewed by The Times said they did not know him.
Victoria and Austin Shupe, artists who moved from Century City to Twentynine Palms a year ago, said that when the suspect’s name was made public, there was an oddity: They had never seen him, nor had anyone else they’ve talked to.
“Twentynine Palms is a really small town,” said Austin Shupe, who owns a music studio in the area called Yucca Man Records. “It’s the kind of town where you go the grocery store and you see everyone.”
FBI released a photo of Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, the primary suspect in the bombing of a Palm Springs fertility clinic that injured four people Saturday.
(FBI)
What about the explosives used?
The FBI described the Palm Springs blast — powerful enough to damage buildings several blocks away — as “probably the largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California,” eclipsing the 2018 bombing of a day spa in Aliso Viejo.
Authorities are still trying to determine what types of explosives were used and how they were acquired.
The blast left a car behind the clinic mangled and killed a person tentatively identified as Bartkus. Officials are unsure whether he intended to kill himself.
Law enforcement sources told The Times that the bomber used a very large amount of explosives — so much that the bomb shredded his remains.
“We believe he was the subject found by the vehicle,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, referencing a 2010 silver Ford Fusion sedan near the explosion site. Davis said investigators believed the suspect was attempting to livestream the attack.
The clinic posted a photo of the blast’s aftermath that showed the building’s roof caved in, debris flowing into the streets and smoke billowing from inside.
Tim Prendergast, co-owner at the gallery Christopher Anthony Ltd., was about two blocks away from the explosion site at his business. He first felt the shock wave hit the building and thought it was the start of an earthquake.
“But of course, once I felt, heard the explosion, then I knew it wasn’t an earthquake,” he said.
Prendergast ran down the street to the explosion site, following a black cloud of smoke, and arrived there in a few minutes. He saw a vehicle on fire and the medical building engulfed in flames. There were multiple people walking around the area in a daze. Some were bloodied but able to stand.
Then he came across body parts in the street.
What do we know about Bartkus’ beliefs and possible motive?
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. The author cites numerous fringe philosophies including
- Abolitionist veganism: The opposition to all animal use by humans.
- Negative utilitarianism: The idea that we should act to minimize suffering rather than maximize pleasure in the world.
- Pro-mortalism: The fringe philosophical position that it is best for sentient beings to die as soon as possible to prevent future suffering.
Davis declined to confirm whether the manifesto was written by the suspect, saying that his team was “tracking a possible manifesto out there, and it’s part of our ongoing investigation.”
In the manifesto, the author denounced those who bring human life into the world and declared an end goal of “sterilizing this planet of the disease of life.”
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.
On the website with the manifesto 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 state woman allegedly shot by her partner at — he says — her request.
A law enforcement bulletin reviewed by The Times said the Palm Springs bombing suspect appeared to become more depressed after the recent death of a female friend.
His father. Richard Bartkus, 75, told the New York Times that his son built toy rockets as a child and once. burned his family’s house down in Yucca Valley while playing with matches. He also sometime built stink bombs, he added.
What do experts say?
Brian Levin, the founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino, said that the author of the manifesto appeared to be part of a growing movement of alienated lone actors radicalized on obscure internet sites and misinformation.
“The antinatalism movement he links to specifically condemns violence,” Levin said. “Still, his purported rambling, idiosyncratic ‘political’ statements paint a far different picture — that of a hopeless unstable young man whose suicidal despair stirs him into a self-consuming brutal death justified by a personally distorted embrace of an obscure anti-life ideology.”
What’s next for the case?
The FBI joint terrorism task force is working with local and federal authorities to chase leads in an effort to determine the sources of the explosives. On Sunday, they appealed to the public for help in tracing Bartkus’ movements before the explosion.
Sources said that at least one gun was recovered from the scene, but that the investigation of the area has been challenged by the amount of damage the bomb created.
Leonard Perez, a retired LAPD lieutenant, said that in their investigation, federal authorities will search the scene for any bomb residue. From there, he said, investigators will “work backwards” to try to determine what type of exposive materials were used.
Until such tests are completed, investigators won’t be able to infer the source of the explosion based only on the size of the blast crater.
“It could be either a homemade device or it could be a military-grade explosive,” he said. “He’s from Twentynine Palms, and so my question would be: Is he ex-military?” said Perez, who handled explosives during his time with the Navy. “And that’s one of the questions that investigators will have to determine: did he have access to those materials?”
“Where was [the bomb] in the car? Was it in the front, was it in the back, was it underneath the car?” he said. “Depending on what part of the car will determine the direction of the post-blast wave.”
“At the same time, investigators will be completing “a workup” of the suspect, a rigorous background check that will search for any evidence of how and when he came by the explosives.”What’s their background, where do they have work, what did they have access to?” Perez said of some of the questions they will seek to answer. “And what did their family members have access to?”
Twentynine Palms is home to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, which is touted as the world’s largest Marine Corps training base. Bartkus was not a Marine, said Yvonne Carlock, a United States Marine spokesperson for manpower and reserve affairs.
The Times could not yet verify whether Bartkus had any other affiliation with the base.
Times staff writers Julia Wick and Rebecca Plevin contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
