An online website without a name, but appeared in the case of bombing related, listed “war against loved ones” and said it would target fertilization clinics.
Palm Springs – The suspect was temporarily identified by the FBI as Guy Edwards Bartkus, 25, during a bombing at the Palm Springs fertility clinic on Sunday.
Guy Edwards Bartkus, 25, of the FBI, was the main suspect in the bombing.
(FBI)
FBI officials said Battercus appeared to have been killed in an explosion at the U.S. Reproductive Center on Saturday morning.
“We believe he is the subject of vehicle discovery,” said Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.
Davis said the suspect “has a nihilistic conception” and tried to live stream the attack, noting that the incident was “the biggest bombing ever in Southern California.”
Law enforcement sources told The Times that the bomber used a large amount of explosives – so many bombs chopped his remains – and may not intend to be killed in the explosion. They also said the suspect appeared to be “anti-life”, a kind of “anti-primitive” who believed that reproduction was immoral or unreasonable and interacted with like-minded people on social forums. Furthermore, he seems to have reacted to his friend's recent death.
They said investigators are working on a manifesto published online, social media and a YouTube account that mentions explosives – the latter is still being verified.
An online website without a name, but appeared in the case of bombing related, listed “war against loved ones” and said it would target fertilization clinics.
The website begins by saying, “Here you can download the recorded stream of my suicide and bombing the IVF clinic, but such files do not exist. The website elevates the philosophical debris from “abolitionist vegetarians,” human opposition to all animal use, and “negative pragmatism” – the notion that we should act to minimize suffering rather than maximize pleasure in the world.
“Basically, I am a pro-constructor,” the author wrote, referring to a marginal philosophical position that is best suited to all beings to die as soon as possible to prevent future suffering.
Times cannot independently confirm that Bartkus has created the website. Domain data shows that the site was created in February.
Davis refused to verify whether the manifesto was written by the suspect, adding that his team “was there to track down possible declarations as part of the investigation we are doing.”
In the manifesto, the author condemns those who bring human life into the world and announces the ultimate goal of “disinfecting this disease of life.”
“As long as people believe it is not a zero-sum game that causes meaningless torture, and it will never be cleaned up or partially,” the website said. “I think we need to fight against supporters. It's obvious that these people are not only stupid, but they don't care at all about the harm they are willing to agents to DNA molecules.”
The site comes with a 30-minute audio file labeled “Pre”, which begins with the speaker, who said he would explain “why I decided to bomb an IVF building or clinic.
“Basically, it's just me being angry at my presence and you know, no one agrees to bring me here,” the speaker said.
When the bomb exploded, the clinic was surrounded by other medical buildings and was closed. Although the bomb ripped the building in half, the clinic's directors said no embryos were harmed.
“Our labs – including all eggs, embryos and reproductive materials – are still completely safe and undamaged,” the company said in a statement posted online. “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like this we remember how fragile and precious life is.”
All hidden in the basic regulations of the website, the author mentions the recent death of a person who the writer claims to be a close friend “Sophie”. References match the April 20 death of a Washington woman who allegedly shot her request in her request.
The Times reviewed law enforcement announcement said the suspect seemed to have become even more frustrated after the recent death of a female friend.
The author said in his manifesto: “I never had much relationship with someone and could not imagine that I would be again.
The website advises the two to reach an agreement: “If one of us dies, the other may follow soon,” the author said. “It’s too big when you don’t have anyone else who really relate to it.”
Brian Levin, founder of the Center for Hate and Extremism Studies, said in a professor emeritus in Cal State San Bernardino that after browsing the manifesto related to the suspects, he appears to be part of an increasingly alienated lonely actor who acts radically on obscure internet sites.
“He is with a specific anti-primitive movement that condemns violence,” Levine said. “Nevertheless, his so-called unrealistic, trait-like 'political' statement paints a very different picture – a desperately unstable young man whose suicide despair plunges him into a cruel death of self-expenditure, which proves justified by the obscure embrace of relatives who distorted by an individual against ideology.”
Over the past two decades, a cascading of young male loners (few adults) have erupted extreme violence over the past two decades due to social distancing, unrestrained online radicalization and aggressiveness, and unresolved psychological distress.
“We see the landscape of violent extremism being severely affected by lone actors, a free and extensive social media and a wave of traits that are able to find niches in part of the existing widespread movement, or among a particularly obscure person.”
Levin said historically, it would be even more difficult for a person to verify and legitimize an obscure ideology and gain knowledge to carry out such an attack.
“Today, we basically have a DIY ecosystem where lonely people can engage in behaviors that were previously more inclined toward groups and small cells,” Levine said. “There is a whole cauldron that involves radicalization, misinformation, a way to legalize violence into such a center of complaints, and that's what you have.”
Investigators were at Bartkus' home within hours of Saturday's explosion.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies asked residents on one end of the community to leave their homes while cleaning up the explosion radius and then wait for a judge’s warrant to search the house kidnapped by the bomb suspect.
An online address catalog shows that Bartkus has used the house since 2019.
Jeanette Hogan said she didn't know Bartkus' name, who lived directly across the street and hadn't seen a resident in months. “We've never seen him, so it's all shocking for us,” Hogan said. “It's a little disturbing to know that our neighbors are doing such a evil thing.
“Thank goodness it's a Saturday and they don't have any patients.”
Thomas Bickel, who lives directly behind the suspect's house, also said he had never met Bartkus. He said the sheriff's deputies asked him to leave the house at about 1 p.m., and then he went to the cactus bar to wait for a search.
Eight hours later, Bicker was still there, caring for beer on the terrace, watching federal agents on the street enter and exit the suspect's house. At one point, they sent a robot into the house, while the drone and a helicopter were hovering overhead.
A FBI agent whose vehicle was parked on the periphery told Bickel that the bomb used in Palm Springs was “large”. A veteran of Bickel's service in Afghanistan said he was familiar with the destructive power of roadside bombs.
“I'm not saying this in a positive way, but someone who knows what they're doing.”
The car explosion was so big that it tore the clinic and blocked debris, broke windows in a nearby hospital while pushing the suspect's crumpled car along the other direction in the rear parking lot.
Nick Jacob Sivetz was about 9 blocks in the graffitiyard when he heard the explosion. He said his roommate also heard explosions at his home about six miles away.
Sivetz ran to the scene and found the business, the windows were blown open and debris were scattered across the road. He said that in the chaos, many residents believed a gasoline explosion occurred.
“I would say the whole city is shaking,” Sievez said. “It's surprising for a lot of people, especially in such a quiet city.”
Palm Springs’ reputation as an inclusive community, and the work of the American Reproductive Center, assisting same-sex couples with proxies to have children, sparked early fears that the attack was a hate crime against the LGBTQ community.
“In the past few years, fertility treatments, including IVF, have become increasingly politicized by far-right extremists,” California Director of Equality Tony Hoang said in a statement to the media.
“No one should worry about their safety when accessing health care. We join a voice chorus calling for a thorough investigation by local, state and federal law enforcement officers and provide support to the Greater Palm Springs community to address this shocking act of violence.”
