Latest news with #RichardBartkus
Los Angeles Times
21-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
What investigators know about the Palm Springs bombing suspect
It has been four days since the bombing of the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic in Palm Springs left one dead and at least four injured in what the FBI called 'an intentional act of terrorism.' DNA tests of body parts found outside the facility showed that the suspect, 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus, was killed in the blast. Law enforcement sources told The Times they are looking into videos, audio files and other online postings attributed to Bartkus as they try to determine the motive for the attack. They also are exploring whether incidents in Bartkus' childhood laid the foundation for later beliefs in 'antinatalism,' an idea that procreation is wrong in an overpopulated world struggling with environmental harm and violence. Here's what we know about the investigation: YouTube videos probably posted by the suspect depict M-80s exploding in desert sand, a hydrogen balloon being set ablaze, and a bucket of radioactive uranium ore that causes a radiation detection device to wail. The voice in the videos, my colleagues have reported, is the same as the one captured on a 30-minute audio file that authorities believe was made by Bartkus. In the audio file, the speaker gives the following reason for bombing a fertility clinic: 'Basically, it just comes down to I'm angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here.' In an interview with my colleague Jenny Jarvie, the suspect's estranged father, Richard Bartkus, said the boy, then 9, set his family's Yucca Valley home on fire. In 2008, the elder Bartkus said, his son took some matches outside his family's rented house to conduct what he called an experiment. The boy burned down the house, a shed, and all of the family's possessions, Richard Bartkus said. 'It destroyed the whole house,' he said. 'So he didn't feel good about that at all.' But his son, Richard Bartkus said, continued to ramp up his experiments with explosives — making rockets, stink bombs and smoke bombs. The elder Bartkus said he became more strict with his son, worrying that his experimentation with increasingly powerful explosives was getting out of hand. Court records offer a window into the family discord that marked the suspect's youth, including his parents' messy divorce and allegations of verbal and emotional abuse. After Bartkus' mother moved out of the family home with her son and daughter in 2012, records show, she obtained a restraining order against Richard Bartkus, saying she felt 'scared of his irrational behavior.' Richard Bartkus disputed many of her allegations. The investigation also is focused on how Bartkus obtained a massive cache of explosives, some of which were found in a house in rural Twentynine Palms that he shared with his mother. My colleagues have reported that investigators are likely to look into Bartkus' proximity to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, which is touted as the largest Marine training base in the world. Capt. Johnathon Huizar, a spokesman for the combat center, said there is no record of Bartkus — who was not a Marine — entering the base. Huizar would not comment on whether there have been any recent instances of lost or stolen explosives. In 2021, 10 pounds of plastic explosives vanished from the base during a training exercise and were suspected to have been stolen, according to news reports. The material was ultimately recovered, according to news reports, but the military has released little information about the episode. Joann says, 'Coronado.' Shelley says, 'Manhattan Beach area.' Email us at essentialcalifornia@ and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. Today's great photo is from contributor Amanda Villegas, of a hillside property in Silver Lake that features an 1,150-square-foot ADU below the existing house and which cost $830,000 to build. Hailey Branson-Potts, staff reporterKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Telegraph
A ‘pro-mortalist' burned down an IVF clinic – there are fears the movement is on the rise
As a child, Guy Edward Bartkus enjoyed playing with smoke bombs and model rockets, and once managed to burn down his family home with a box of matches. On Saturday, authorities believe the 25-year-old blew himself up with a car bomb in Palm Springs, California, outside a fertility clinic. Following the blast, which killed Bartkus and injured four other people, investigators unearthed writing online and what appears to be an audio manifesto justifying the attack, in which he describes himself as a 'pro-mortalist'. He appeared to subscribe to an ideology that humans should cease to exist to prevent future suffering, and that having children is fundamentally immoral because they could not consent to being born. Richard Bartkus, 75, the father of the suspect, has said that he believed the voice on the recording belonged to his son and suggested he had been 'brainwashed' from spending time online. Pro-mortalism is a 'twisted belief system that is anti-life', said Brian Levin, founder of the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. It primarily promotes suicide rather than terrorist attacks among its adherents, Mr Levin said, adding the 'philosophy itself is dangerous because it promotes the devaluation of life'. He said it was one of a number of fringe movements on dark corners of the internet that is infecting young men. Bartkus appeared to have posted a 30-minute recording online shortly before the attack, which begins with the words: 'I figured I would just make a recording explaining why I've decided to bomb an IVF building or clinic.' 'Basically, it just comes down to, I'm angry that I exist, and that's, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here,' he continued, and compared the act of being born to raping an unconscious woman. He compared life to 'slavery to a DNA molecule' and declared himself sickened by 'so much wasted suffering' in the world. 'When you see innocent creatures getting completely f—d by life, you know, I'm not just talking humans, but even animals, right? How the hell can you sit there and call that an intelligent design?' said the 25-year-old, who was a vegan and seemingly used the username 'IndictEvolution' online. 'Parents were the real killers by creating life' Openly admitting he would cause 'death' and 'destruction' by bombing the fertility clinic, he declared in vitro fertilisation (IVF) was 'the epitome of pro-life ideology' and said: 'F— IVF, f— IVF clinics, and f— the people that work for them.' 'I'm only doing this because I feel like it's what I have to do to get people's f—ing attention and to let the world know, like, yes, I'm f—ing serious about this s—,' he continued. Parents were 'the real killers' by creating life in the first place, he said, arguing: 'All the pro-mortalist is saying is like, hey, let's make it, let's make the death thing happen sooner rather than later in life, right? We're just changing the date at which it happened.' The FBI said the explosion, which took place about 11am on Saturday morning, was the largest bombing ever in southern California. Although the bombing heavily damaged the clinic, authorities managed to rescue the medical records and embryos of patients who were trying to conceive. The online cult is an off-shoot of anti-natalism — the belief that it is always immoral to have children, Prof Levin said. 'There's a glorification of the dark side of the world and this blends into a nihilistic viewpoint,' he said, explaining that the group exists 'on the dark side of the dark web'. Anti-natalists on online forums sought to distance themselves from pro-mortalism in the wake of the attack. 'We empathise with suffering, we don't seek to cause suffering. If you have pro-mortalist thoughts and beliefs, then kindly direct yourself out of this sub,' one account wrote on Reddit. Prof Levin said the attack showed how the internet had allowed a range of extremist ideologies to proliferate. 'We look at multiple examples of young males, 17 to 25 ,who lash out against what they see as a degrading world. Sometimes it's done to stand for racial supremacy or nationalism,' he said. 'In this case though, he [Bartkus] boiled it down to the most central crux of his existence, which is that he had an unhappy and despaired life. 'It's a philosophy that says suicide is actually purposeful and accomplishing something beneficial for the world.' Bartkus is said to have posted videos of homemade explosive devices on multiple social media accounts, a law enforcement source told ABC News. An archived account shows videos dating back six years of what appeared to be tests of homemade explosive devices. YouTube has since deleted the channels because they are 'associated with the suspect'. Richard Bartkus told The New York Times he had not spoken with his son in 10 years, and recalled him as enjoying tinkering with small model rockets and 'stink bombs' and 'smoke bombs'. In September 2009, aged nine, he said he son was placed on juvenile probation after lighting the family home on fire while playing with matches
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Dad makes bizarre revelation about what IVF clinic suicide bomber son hated
The suspect in the California fertility clinic bombing was not a 'terrorist' or 'anti-life', but instead was 'anti-test tube baby', his father has claimed. Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, detonated a car bomb that rocked the American Reproductive Centers building in Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles. None of the facility's embryos were damaged in the attack, which the FBI has called an act of terrorism. Authorities said Bartkus, who died in the explosion, left behind nihilistic writings that indicated views against procreation, an idea known as anti-natalism. But his father Richard Bartkus has challenged that description, suggesting his son is not a killer or terrorist, but should instead be called a 'suicide bomber.' 'A terrorist is out to kill people, destroy life. He wasn't there to destroy life,' he told FOX 11. 'He was there against test tube baby. He was not anti-life, he was anti test tube baby.' Richard said his son, whom he described as a 'bright kid' and 'computer', believed that 'people who had test tube babies they would never really love the child as their own'. He also claimed that he does not believe Bartkus acted alone in the plot, although authorities have not released any information confirming that theory. Saturday's explosion gutted the clinic and shattered the windows of nearby buildings along a palm tree-lined street. Passersby described a loud boom, with people screaming in terror and glass strewn along sidewalks of the upscale desert city. Bartkus' body was found near a charred vehicle. Authorities are working to learn more about Bartkus' motives. They haven't said if he intended to kill himself in the attack or why he chose the specific facility. His writings communicated 'nihilistic ideations' that were still being examined to determine his state of mind, said US Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area. In general, nihilism suggests that life is meaningless. Investigators claim that Bartkus appeared to hold anti-natalist views, which include a belief that it is morally wrong for people to bring children into the world. The clinic he attacked provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations. Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, called the attack possibly the 'largest bombing scene that we've had in Southern California.' 'This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,' Davis said Sunday. 'Make no mistake: We are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.' Authorities executed a search warrant in Bartkus' hometown of Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 residents northeast of Palm Springs with a large US Marine Corps base. Bartkus lived at home with his mother and sister, and reportedly hadn't seen or spoken to his father in several years. His neighbors told FOX 11 that the suspected bomber mostly kept to himself, with one community resident alleging 'that was probably the way he wanted it.' 'You know a lot of times when people do stuff like this they kind of stay away from the public eye, stay away from attention,' the neighbor added. However, the FBI says that Bartkus tried to livestream the explosion, but the attempt failed. Authorities haven't shared specifics about the explosives used to make the bomb and where Bartkus may have obtained them. Scott Sweetow, a retired ATF explosives expert, said the amount of damage caused indicated that the suspect used a 'high explosive' similar to dynamite and TNT rather than a 'low explosive' like gun powder. Those types of explosives are normally difficult for civilians to access, but increasingly people are finding ways to concoct explosives at home, he said. 'Once you know the chemistry involved, it´s pretty easy to get stuff,' Sweetow said. 'The ingredients you could get at a grocery store.' The images of the aftermath also showed that the explosion appeared to blow from the street straight through the building and to the parking lot on the other side, something that could have been intentional or pure luck, Sweetow said. A part of the car was also blown through the building and landed in the back by a dumpster.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Yahoo
Palm Springs bombing suspect's YouTube showed tests of homemade explosives, report says
The suspect in the fatal car bomb attack on a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, posted a string of videos on YouTube documenting his experiments with homemade explosives, according to a report. Guy Edward Bartkus is investigators' only suspect concerning the blast at the American Reproductive Centers of Palm Springs, which took place at 11 a. m. on Saturday morning. The 25 year-old, of nearby Twentynine Palms, is believed to be the person found dead next to the detonated Ford Fusion in its car park. Four people were injured but no members of staff or reproductive materials held at the clinic were harmed in the explosion, according to a statement. Its IVF center, housed in a single-storey building close by, was gutted. The FBI quickly labelled the incident 'an intentional act of terrorism' and law enforcement officers are now reviewing social media accounts believed to have been operated by Bartkus, ABC News reports. One of these is 'Indict Evolution,' a YouTube channel that has been taken down in the wake of Saturday's events but which reportedly dates back at least six years and features videos of explosives tests with titles like 'Uranium Ore Next to Geiger Counter' and 'Thorite from Thorium Mine.' 'We terminated channels associated with the suspect,' a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement, adding that they had been removed for violating the company's policy regarding the promotion of violent extremism. A username that investigators believe was associated with Bartkus shared one of the videos on a suicide-themed message board on May 12, ABC reports. Then, last Thursday, the same account posted about death by carbon monoxide poisoning before alluding to 'some extra drama that I probably shouldn't say haha.' In other writings traced to Bartkus and cited by KCAL News, the suspect expressed antinatalist or 'efilist' beliefs and described himself as a 'pro-mortalist' intent on causing death 'to prevent your future suffering, and, more importantly, the suffering your existence will cause to all the other sentient beings.' In a 30-minute audio clip also uncovered, Bartkus stated: 'I figured I would just make a recording explaining why I've decided to bomb an IVF building or clinic. 'Basically, it just comes down to I'm angry that I exist and that, you know, nobody got my consent to bring me here. These are people who are having kids after they've sat there and thought about it. How much more stupid can it get?' Richard Bartkus, the suspect's estranged father, has since told The New York Times his son played with matches, stink bombs and smoke bombs in his teens but 'nothing major, nothing like a 'bomb' bomb, but he'd build rockets, shoot them in the air.' In a separate interview with KTLA, Richard Bartkus recounted how his son had once set fire to their family home: 'After he had burned the house down, he started changing a little bit, he'd light fires. I was too strict for him, so he wanted to stay with Mom until the divorce came through. Mom was lenient.' While there have been past attacks on abortion clinics and people who work at them in the U.S. for many years, attacks on fertility clinics have been far rarer. Palm Springs is a city of roughly 45,000 people about a hundred miles east of Los Angeles, and has long been known as a vacation spot for the rich and famous. The resort city is situated in the Coachella Valley within the Colorado Desert.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Fertility Clinic Bombing Suspect's Father Breaks Down in Tears: ‘He Just Changed'
The father of the man accused of setting off a bomb outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, has said he does not recognize the person accused of the attack. Richard Bartkus, who hasn't spoken to 25-year-old suspect Guy Edward Bartkus in more than a decade, gave an emotional interview to CBS News Los Angeles where he described how he remembered his son as someone who always 'tried to help people.' 'He's a good kid,' Richard Bartkus said through tears. 'After Twentynine Palms, he just changed,' he added, referring to the California city where his son lived, which is also home to a Marine base. The FBI has identified Guy Edward Bartkus as the main suspect in the blast, which occurred outside the American Reproductive Centers clinic on Saturday. The agency believes the 25-year-old died after detonating explosives in his 2010 silver Ford Fusion outside the IVF center. On Saturday, Akil Davis, head of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said they were treating the incident as an 'intentional act of terrorism.' Davis added that online posts and other evidence suggested the suspect had 'nihilistic ideations,' and that this was a 'targeted' attack against an IVF facility. FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller also said the agency was investigating whether the suspect's alleged 'antinatalist views' were a motive behind the attack, reported NPR. Antinatalism is the belief that it is morally wrong to have children. Richard Bartkus told CBS News Los Angeles that he learned about his son's suspected death in the blast through news reports. He also recalled how, as a child, his son accidentally burned down the family home while playing with matches, and used to make 'kid things' like smoke and stink bombs. Despite this, Richard Bartkus said he never saw anything to suggest his son would one day become a suspect in a terrorist attack. 'He didn't make anything dangerous. When I say bombs, it wasn't like a real bomb,' he explained. 'It was like something you just throw on the ground and it pops.' 'I don't know what changed his mind. Maybe a girl, maybe the people he was hanging out with up there. It wasn't him. Before that, Guy was more about helping people.' California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a Saturday statement that he was 'working closely' with local and federal authorities. Attorney General Pam Bondi also said she had been briefed on the explosion, describing the attack against the fertility clinic as 'unforgivable.'
