A damaged building is seen after an explosion in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday.
Eric Thayer/AP
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Eric Thayer/AP
Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, has been identified as the primary person of interest in the fatal explosion outside a California fertility clinic Saturday morning.
Investigators also said that they suspect Bartkus was the sole fatality in the Palm Springs blast, which injured four others.
“We are working through some other technical means to positively identify the decedent here, but we believe at this moment based on the evidence that we’ve gathered that that is Mr. Bartkus as the decedent here,” Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said at a Sunday morning press conference.
Davis reiterated that law enforcement is treating the bombing as an act of terrorism and said investigators have gathered some clues showing Bartkus’ state of mind, including online posts and other writings that investigators are now examining. “The subject had nihilistic ideations, and this was a targeted attack against the IVF facility.” Davis added that investigators believe Bartkus was attempting to live stream the bombing.
Law enforcement officials also executed a search warrant in Bartkus’s hometown of Twentynine Palms, nearly 60 miles northeast of Palm Springs.
Davis said this was the first time Bartkus had appeared on the FBI’s radar but that he may have had contacts with other law enforcement agencies.
The bomb used was powerful enough “to throw pieces of vehicle hundreds of feet in the air and then several blocks away. You can use your imagination for how big that that bomb device was,” Davis said. He would not comment on the type of materials used in the bomb, saying it was still under investigation. Bartkus was driving a silver 2010 Ford Fusion sedan, Davis said.
