A 32-year-old man accused of supplying chemicals used in last month’s deadly bombing outside a fertility clinic in California was arrested Tuesday evening at JFK Airport, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
Daniel Park, of Washington state, was taken into federal custody after landing in Queens on a flight from Poland shortly after 8 p.m. following his arrest by authorities there on May 30, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a press briefing on June 4.
Park appeared before a magistrate judge in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday afternoon for a removal hearing, where he consented to being transferred to California in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, according to a law enforcement source.
“We’re asking that he be detained without bail,” Essayli said early Wednesday, adding that he expects it would be several weeks before he is transported to the Central District of California.
On the morning of May 17, a silver Ford Fusion sedan exploded outside American Reproductive Centers, a fertility clinic on North Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.
The blast killed Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, who is believed to have carried out the attack, and injured four bystanders. Several nearby buildings were also damaged. Power to the fertility clinic was quickly restored, and no embryos were lost, according to authorities.
Federal prosecutors allege that Park shipped at least 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate – an explosive precursor, commonly used to construct homemade bombs – to Bartkus for the attack at the American Reproductive Centers, a fertility clinic in Palm Springs. The FBI is treating the incident as a premeditated act of domestic terrorism.
Investigators allege that Park paid for an additional 90 pounds of chemicals that were shipped to Bartkus in the days leading up to the attack.
It is also alleged that Park had helped Bartkus test explosives in a detached garage at his Twentynine Palms residence over a two-week period in January and February of this year.
In an criminal complaint seen by amNewYork, federal investigators claim that the two men had been in contact through a encrypted messaging app that auto-deleted texts, and that Park had also visited Bartkus during the summer of 2024. The complaint also references bank statements that allege Park deposited about $850 into Bartkus account between Dec. 2024 and Feb. 2025.
They said that evidence recovered from Bartkus’ garage included the chemical precursors and lab equipment, while a search of Park’s Seattle residence on May 31 allegedly uncovered a written recipe similar to the one used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Authorities say the bombing was motivated by anti-natalist ideology, a belief that procreation is morally wrong, shared by both Bartkus and Park.
“They don’t believe that new life should be created, that it should not be created without consent,” Essaylie said. “That is the reason that we believe they likely targeted the location that they did. That’s why we’re calling this a terrorist attack. The location was not a coincidence.”
In the criminal complaint, federal prosecutors said that in an interview with the FBI, a member of Park’s family said he made statements consistent with pro-mortalism ideology as far back as his high school years.
“He [Park] posted about these ideologies on internet forums dating all the way back to 2016,” Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said during the briefing. “Park’s social media posts indicate that he was attempting to recruit others of like-minded ideology and discuss these things on internet forums.”
A cellphone recovered from the scene showed Bartkus attempted to livestream the attack using a tripod-mounted device, although no footage has surfaced. The criminal complaint alleges the FBI saw a series of chats Bartkus had with an AI chat bot on the phone, asking it questions about explosives, diesel, gasoline mixtures, and detonation velocity.
Federal investigators said Bartkus had also previously expressed online ideations about attacking reproductive clinics.
Authorities said they do not believe Park was in Southern California on the day of the bombing. He allegedly left the country just four days after the incident, traveling to Poland via Denmark. He was detained in Warsaw on May 30 and deported to the U.S., where agents arrested him upon arrival at JFK. The criminal complaint also states that Park had tried to harm himself after Polish authorities had made contact with him.
The FBI said it was continuing to investigate the attack, including possible collaborators and any broader ideological network linked to Bartkus’s planning. Officials said this is the first known act of violence linked to the anti-natalist ideology, though the movement has been monitored by the FBI for at least a decade.
“Mr. Park’s contributions to the destructive device detonated on May 17, led to the charges today, and we continue to ask the public to come forward with any information,” Davis added.
Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact 1-800-CALL-FBI or visit tips.fbi.gov
