LOS ANGELES – A Washington state man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging he provided material support to the Palm Springs fertility clinic bomber by shipping and paying for significant quantities of ammonium nitrate – an explosive precursor – prior to the suicidal terror attack last month, the Justice Department announced today.
Daniel Jongyon Park, 32, of Kent, Washington, was arrested last night shortly after his flight from Poland arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Park is charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
He is expected to make his initial appearance today in United States District Court in Brooklyn, New York.
“This defendant is charged with shipping large quantities of explosive precursors to the man whose suicide bombing last month destroyed a fertility clinic in Palm Springs,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “Domestic terrorism is evil and unacceptable. Those who aid terrorists can expect to feel the cold wrath of justice.”
“Mr. Park’s contribution to the destructive device detonated on May 17 led to today’s charges and we continue to ask the public to come forward with any information,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “We must strive to prevent another attack like this and the way we do that is to learn everything we can about what exactly caused the explosion, who knew about it or planned it, and why.”
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, of Twentynine Palms, California, drove a car containing a bomb to a fertility clinic in Palm Springs on May 17. Bartkus detonated the bomb, killing himself, injuring numerous victims, destroying the fertility clinic’s building and damaging surrounding buildings and areas. Bartkus’s attack was motivated by his pro-mortalism, anti-natalism, and anti-pro-life ideology, which is the belief that individuals should not be born without their consent and that non-existence is best.
Park – who shares Bartkus’s extremist views – shipped large quantities of explosive precursor materials to Bartkus, including approximately 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Days before the Palm Springs bombing, Park paid for an additional 90 pounds (40.8 kilograms) of ammonium nitrate that was shipped to Bartkus.
Park sent the first shipments of approximately 180 pounds (81.7 kilograms) of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus shortly before traveling to Bartkus’s residence, where he stayed with Bartkus from January 25 to February 8. Three days before Park arrived at Bartkus’s house, records from an AI chat application show that Bartkus researched how to make powerful explosions using ammonium nitrate and fuel.
During his stay at Bartkus’s residence, Park and Bartkus spent time in Bartkus’s room as well as in a detached garage “running experiments,” according to the affidavit. This was the same garage where law enforcement, during a search after the May 17 bombing, located significant amounts of chemicals commonly used in the construction of homemade bombs.
Four days after Bartkus conducted the suicide bombing, Park flew to Europe. On May 30, Park was detained in Poland and later was ordered deported to the United States.
A criminal complaint contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
If convicted, Park would face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
The FBI’s Inland Empire Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating this matter. Considerable assistance was provided by the Palm Springs Police Department, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department; the FBI’s legal attaché in Warsaw, Polish authorities, and FBI field offices in Seattle, New York, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Portland.
Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah E. Gerdes and Anna P. Boylan of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section are prosecuting this case, with substantial assistance from Trial Attorney Patrick J. Cashman of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
