Palm Springs Suicide Bombing Defendant Dies In Custody

CALIFORNIA — A Washington state man has died in custody after being charged with providing material support to terrorists in connection with the May 17 suicide bombing at a Palm Springs fertility clinic.

Daniel Jongyon Park, 32, of Kent, Washington, was found unresponsive around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and later died at a hospital, according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

A suspected cause of death was not immediately announced.

Park had been in federal custody since June 3, when his flight from Poland arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

"Mr. Park was a 32-year-old male who arrived at MDC Los Angeles on June 13, 2025, under pretrial status after being indicted for Malicious Destruction of Property," according to Tuesday's Federal Bureau of Prisons statement.

In a federal criminal complaint, it's alleged that Park provided material support to the Palm Springs fertility clinic bomber by shipping and paying for significant quantities of ammonium nitrate — an explosive precursor — before the suicidal terror attack last month.

On May 17, Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, of Twentynine Palms drove a car containing a bomb to the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic at 1199 North Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, prosecutors said.

Bartkus detonated the explosive just before 11 a.m. that day, killing himself, injuring nearby victims, and destroying the fertility clinic’s building and damaging surrounding buildings and areas.

"This explosion was significant, covering several blocks north, south, and east and west from the 1300 block of Indian Canyon," according to Akil Davis, assistant director in charge with the FBI Los Angeles.

The clinic was not open at the time of the blast. Dr. Maher Abdallah, who runs the clinic, said no one from his staff was injured although the building sustained damage. The lab — where eggs, embryos and reproductive materials are stored — was not damaged, according to Abdallah.

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The explosion was called the "largest bombing scene that we've had in Southern California" by FBI officials.

Bartkus tried to livestream the explosion, but his attempt failed, according to the FBI.

Davis said there was no indication that Bartkus had identified other possible bombing targets.

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, according to prosecutors.

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Park allegedly shared Bartkus’s views. The Washington man appeared to be a frequent poster in an anti-natalist Reddit forum going back nearly a decade, according to court papers. In 2016, he spoke of recruiting others to the movement. “When people are lost and distraught, death is always an option,” he allegedly wrote.

Park and Bartkus formed a connection over their shared ideologies, and the two eventually spent time planning the Palm Springs bombing, including how to make the fuel for the explosion, according to prosecutors. During a stay together at Bartkus’s home, from January 25 to February 8, the two used a bedroom and a detached garage to "run experiments," according to the prosecutors.

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, authorities said.

Four days after Bartkus blew up himself and the Palm Springs clinic, Park flew to Europe. On May 30, he was detained in Poland and later was ordered deported to the United States.

If Park had been convicted on all charges, he would have faced a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

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