Photo: FBI
The suspect responsible for detonating a bomb outside an IVF clinic in Palm Springs Saturday (May 17) has been identified.
Guy Edwards Bartkus, 25, of Twentynine Palms, is suspected to have detonated an explosive device from his car outside the American Reproductive Centers, which resulted in four others being injured, as well as his own death by suicide, law enforcement sources confirmed to the New York Post on Sunday (May 18). Bartkus was described as having "pro-mortalist" beliefs in written and recorded manifestos, which he planned to bring into the world without the consent of others to spare them from further suffering, KCAL reported.
FBI agents, which included tactical teams and armored vehicles with bomb squad units in full gear, swarmed Bartkus' home, which is located about an hour away from the clinic, and evacuated the neighborhood, which they declared as a "blast zone" amid concerns of potential other exposes he left behind, ABC 7 reported.
Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, confirmed the agency was leading the investigation but declined to confirm whether the raid was directly linked to the Palm Springs incident during a press conference late Saturday night. The FBI did, however, confirm that Bartkus acted as the sole suspect in the bombing.