Latest news with #domesticTerrorism
Washington Post
7 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Michigan Gov. Whitmer says Trump promised not to pardon kidnapping plotters
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Thursday that President Donald Trump would be breaking a promise if he went through with pardoning the two men who were convicted of plotting to kidnap her, claiming that he pledged not to do so during a conversation last month. In 2022, Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox were convicted of plotting to kidnap Whitmer in 2020 in one of the highest-profile domestic terrorism cases in recent memory. Prosecutors cast the men as violent anti-government extremists who planned to kidnap the governor from her vacation home over what they saw as overly restrictive covid pandemic policies, detonate a bridge to disrupt responding officers and ignite a civil war ahead of the 2020 election. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that he would 'take a look at' pardoning the men, adding, 'I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job.' Responding to Trump's comments, Whitmer told Michigan Public Radio, 'I talked to the President about a month ago and he asked me how I'd feel about this, and I said, 'I think it would be the wrong decision.'' 'And he said, 'Okay, I'll drop it,'' she added. When asked if she thinks Trump is serious about the potential pardons, Whitmer said that wasn't clear. 'When I talked to him before, we had a thoughtful conversation about it, and he said he'd drop it. So, I'm not sure what to make of this new revelation,' she said in Thursday's interview. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Whitmer, who pointed out that she was one of the first politicians to condemn the assassination attempt Trump faced at a 2024 rally in Pennsylvania, said she would make her thoughts on the issue known to the White House over the weekend. Federal and state officials originally charged multiple people in the plot against Whitmer, arresting the men in an October 2020 sting that involved the use of informants and undercover FBI agents. The officers embedded with the men, who were associates of a militia group known as the 'Wolverine Watchmen.' Among the six men who faced federal charges, two men — Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks — initially pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors ahead of an initial trial. In that initial trial, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on Croft and Fox but acquitted two other alleged co-conspirators, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta. In a second federal trial, Croft and Fox were convicted on two charges of conspiracy — one related to the kidnapping scheme and another to obtain and use a weapon of mass destruction. Croft also was convicted on another explosives charge. Prosecutors told jurors that Fox compiled a list of tools the group would need to carry out the kidnapping, including handcuffs and a hood to cover Whitmer's head, and plotted where to place explosives to destroy the bridge near Whitmer's home. Jurors saw video of Croft making explosives and heard testimony of how he believed God had given him permission to kill. Jurors in the earlier federal trial seemed to agree, at least in part, with defense lawyers' arguments that FBI agents entrapped the men in the violent plot, pointing to how one of the undercover federal operatives offered explosives to the men. In the wake of the case, Whitmer repeatedly blamed Trump for stoking mistrust and anger over covid restrictions and refusing to condemn extremists like those implicated in the plot. But since Trump has retaken the presidency, she's been one of the rare Democratic politicians who has sought to build a working relationship with him. Their partnership has yielded some results for Whitmer's home state, such as a new fighter mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. But that effort to work together has also posed challenges for the potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, particularly in scenes with Trump where she has seemed to be caught off guard. During a speech at the base to announce the new mission, Trump praised the governor and then invited her to speak at the lectern to deliver remarks she said she was not planning. 'I am so, so grateful that this announcement was made today, and I appreciate all the work,' Whitmer said, without specifically praising Trump. When she went to lobby Trump last month on Selfridge and other state-related issues, she found herself standing in the Oval Office while the president signed executive orders targeting his political opponents. The New York Times later published a photo showing her shielding her face from the camera. (Her office said she was invited into the Oval Office without knowing what Trump was about to do, and clarified that she did not endorse his actions by being there.) During his second term, Trump has deployed pardons in a wide-reaching campaign to recalibrate a justice system he calls corrupt and says has politically persecuted him and those who support him. Shortly after being sworn in, Trump pardoned virtually all of the defendants convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and commuted the sentences of the remaining 14. In front of a conservative crowd in 2022, Trump sought to connect the legal plight of the Jan. 6 rioters with the individuals who plotted to kidnap Whitmer, suggesting that the governor was never in danger. 'Just like those who instigated January 6th,' he said at the time, 'it was a fake deal.' Holly Bailey, Perry Stein, Emily Davies and Patrick Svitek contributed to this report.
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Antisemitic shooting of Israeli diplomats adds to alarming rise in domestic terrorism
Two young Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed in an antisemitic attack in Washington D.C. Wednesday night. It was the latest incident being investigated by federal authorities as domestic terrorism. The U.S. has seen an increase in antisemitic attacks and violent pro-Palestine protests amid the war between Israel and Hamas. But the incidents of domestic terrorism aren't limited to antisemitism. Extremists who hold anti-American sentiment have attempted attacks on vehicles, military bases and more. Here is a breakdown of the domestic terrorism incidents in the U.S. this year: On Wednesday, May 21, a pro-Palestinian man opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two staffers of the Embassy of Israel to the U.S.—a couple set to be engaged—were shot and killed as they left the museum's event focused on finding humanitarian solutions for Gaza. Lischinsky was born in Israel and grew up in Germany. His father is Jewish, and his mother is Christian. Milgrim was an American employee of the embassy. Authorities took Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old man from Chicago, into custody. Upon being taken into custody, Rodriguez began shouting, "Free, free Palestine!" The FBI is investigating the incident as a possible hate crime and investigating any ties to terrorism. Steven Jensen, the assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington field office, said in a news conference that the federal law enforcement entity is working alongside the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to "look into ties to potential terrorism or motivation based on a bias-based crime or a hate crime." On May 17, a bombing took place at a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, Calif. The bombing killed the suspect and injured four others. Authorities identified the perpetrator of the incident as a 26-year-old suspect motivated by a fringe ideology known as "pro-mortalism." "Pro-mortalism," a radical offshoot of anti-natalism, views human reproduction as inherently immoral and embraces death as a moral corrective. According to federal and local law enforcement, the suspect targeted the American Reproductive Centers facility specifically to destroy human embryos stored on-site. Surveillance footage and online postings suggest he parked in the rear of the building to remain unnoticed, ingested drugs and then detonated an explosive device – killing himself in the process. The FBI has classified the bombing as an act of domestic terrorism, citing the ideological motivation behind the violence. Officials have said that it is the first high-profile case linked to the pro-mortalist ideology and are now monitoring it as a potential emerging threat. Authorities have urged families and communities to remain vigilant for signs of ideological extremism, especially among those who may feel disenfranchised. Earlier this month, a former Michigan Army National Guard member, Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, was arrested for allegedly planning a mass shooting near the U.S. Army's Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) center at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan. Said planned to carry out the attack on behalf of ISIS. Said "launched his drone in support of the attack plan" and told an undercover FBI agent in the lead-up to the foiled plot he recommended that "everyone have about seven magazines because you don't want to be in there and run out of ammo," according to officials. Said is now facing charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destructive device. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years per count if convicted. The FBI disrupted the attempted attack, with FBI Director Kash Patel telling Fox News Digital that any individual targeting the U.S. military or conspiring with foreign terrorist organizations will be "prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." "Let this be a warning: Anyone who targets our military or conspires with foreign terrorist organizations will be found, stopped and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Patel told Fox News Digital on Thursday. "I commend the men and women of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and our law enforcement partners for their continued dedication to protecting the American people." Since January, there have been a number of instances of vandalism, arson and targeted shootings against Tesla vehicles, dealerships, and charging stations across the nation. Tesla vehicles and dealerships have been targeted nationwide amid Elon Musk's involvement with the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been focused on slashing wasteful spending and fraud within the federal government. Musk is the co-founder and CEO of Tesla. The FBI launched a task force to crack down on violent Tesla attacks. The FBI's task force was created in conjunction with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and will coordinate investigative activity. A threat tag has been created at the FBI to streamline reports and a command post at FBI headquarters has been created. It consists of a joint FBI/ATF task force to mitigate that threat stream. The FBI is treating the attacks as "domestic terrorism." Attorney General Pam Bondi called the attacks on Tesla "domestic terrorism," and the Department of Justice announced charges against suspects in Tesla arson cases. Musk spoke out against the "deranged" attacks, suggesting that "there's some kind of mental illness thing going on here, because this doesn't make any sense." The billionaire even alluded to "larger forces" potentially behind the attacks that have sprung up across the nation.
CNN
21-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
The Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing cut off critical power to incubating embryos. A firefighter's risky plan averted tragedy
Christy Holstege, the former mayor of Palm Springs who is 18 weeks pregnant, was playing with her pre-schooler in their living room Saturday morning when a blast reverberated through her neighborhood and a plume of smoke began to grow on the horizon. It didn't take long for word to reach her that the building ablaze was the local fertility clinic. Panic gripped Holstege as she thought of her last remaining embryo stored inside the clinic and her concern deepened as she considered the safety of the staff that had carried her family through the last five years of in-vitro fertilization treatment – first with her son and again this year. Through a fortuitous turn of events, the usually bustling American Reproductive Center was completely empty when a car exploded outside the clinic Saturday, blowing a gaping hole in the side of the building and severing the power supply of the lab where thousands of embryos and other specimens are stored. For miles around the blast zone, Coachella Valley families held the babies and toddlers conceived at ARC. Alongside hopeful would-be parents, they worried for the immediate fate of their remaining embryos in the clinic, and for the long-term safety of the reproductive center, which authorities believe was targeted in an act of domestic terrorism. Mothers Sophie and Simone Bain-Tohl were hosting a party full of fellow parents when they heard news of the attack. The room grew somber as they surrounded a play mat full of wriggling babies – two of them conceived by IVF – and realized every person in the room either had embryos stored at ARC or knew someone who does. Though the frozen embryos at the clinic would remain cold without electricity, a set of embryos being incubated would be irreversibly damaged if power was not restored within hours. But at the scene of the explosion, a firefighter began to hatch a risky plan to protect future families, including that of a fellow first responder. Firefighters initially rushed to tamp down the blaze caused by the explosion and ensure no victims were inside. But the crumbling building soon began to shift and bomb squad technicians became concerned about a possible secondary device that could put first responders at risk. When Deputy Fire Chief Greg Lyle arrived an hour after the blast, first responders had been ordered to get out of the still smoking building until a bomb squad could assess the scene. Clinic director Dr. Maher Abdallah, who was able to access clinic security cameras before the power went out, reported that the embryo lab appeared intact, but Lyle was not convinced. Itching to help, he and the other firefighters began considering how they could ensure the embryo incubators and cryogenic tanks were secure. 'So I went over to the lead FBI investigator, and kind of pitched a crazy scheme to him, fully expecting him to say no,' Lyle said. The scheme: Lyle would venture alone into the still standing part of the building, which contained unknown risk of structural collapse, a secondary explosion or additional fires, to find the lab and assess the status of the embryos. 'This is a crazy plan, and if anybody's going to get hurt, the only thing that I would be able to be comfortable with is that it would be me,' he said. 'I just had a gut feeling it had to be me.' The FBI agent, identified by the city police chief as Agent Chris Meltzer, embraced the plan under one condition: Meltzer would accompany Lyle. Together, the pair headed into the building, cautiously navigating blown-out door frames, crumbling drywall and several inches of standing water, likely from a water main break or fire sprinklers. They eventually spotted a room stacked with what appeared to be cryogenic tanks. 'We thought initially that maybe we could go in and just grab it and go. But it was obvious there was too much (equipment) – too big, too bulky, too heavy,' Lyle said. 'So we determined the only thing we could do would be restore power to this stuff.' Quickly, they realized the backup generators had failed, and it became increasingly clear they alone would not be able to restore the electricity. The pair picked their way back out of the building to assemble a team of firefighters, police and bomb squad personnel to address the outage. 'It took them a while, but they were successful,' Lyle said. The team's heroic initiative likely saved the incubating embryos, Abdallah said. An hour or two longer without power could have had tragic consequences. Unbeknownst to Lyle, the ARC lab houses embryos belonging to the wife of one of his own firefighters, who sent Lyle a message thanking him for preserving his family's future. 'It kind of hit home there. I didn't even know,' Lyle said. The firefighter's wife is among the patients with appointments early this week. Yet, in order to continue ongoing treatment for patients, it would take a second team effort to keep the delicate process moving forward. Most Saturdays, Abdallah and his staff are flitting between patient rooms and laboratories, sterilizing equipment, checking on growing embryos and walking hopeful parents through the arduous process of in vitro fertilization. But through a series of inexplicable events, the clinic was completely empty on Saturday when the car exploded outside. Abdallah had spontaneously decided to visit family. Two other weekend employees had been called away. And the clinic, just days before, had rescheduled a procedure that would have required 12 employees to be in the office at the time of the explosion. 'So many things happened to protect our staff,' Abdallah said. 'It's just really a miracle.' Though shaken by the bombing, Abdallah and his staff have been seeking solace in each others' presence and their shared determination to continue operating the clinic. The attack, though unsuccessful, delivered a seismic shock to patients and violated a space that many feel is far more intimate than just a medical clinic; It's the venue where their families were formed and precious possibilities are stored. 'I went there every week for the last 12 weeks, sometimes twice a week,' Holstege said. 'That is my home, my medical home.' As the only fertility clinic within a 100-mile radius, ARC stores thousands of embryos, eggs and sperm specimens for patients from Palm Springs to as far as Asia and the Middle East, Abdallah said. Several families who depend on ARC for fertility services described a profound level of care from the clinic's staff, who have made late-night calls to share test results, scheduled extra ultrasounds for nervous mothers and held patients in their arms during moments of both grief and joy. 'ARC is a place where we went to build our family and holds so much more than just a clinic. It's a place of vulnerability and hope and tenderness, and the staff there is just incredible,' said Sophie Bain-Tohl, whose four-month-old son was conceived at ARC. Though Bain-Tohl and her wife plan to keep their embryos at ARC, the attack has left them with a lingering fear for the safety of their embryos, which they hope will one day provide them with a daughter. 'Our sense of safety is shattered by something like this,' Simone Bain-Tohl said. 'It's such an absurd event that you never really think it's going to happen, especially to a place that's tied to so much hope and vulnerability.' Investigators say the 25-year-old bombing suspect, who was killed in the blast, had 'nihilistic ideations' and intentionally targeted the IVF facility – a reality that Holstege and other patients are having difficulty coming to terms with. 'Why would someone do this? Who could do this? This is a place of hope and creating life,' said Holstege. For some patients with appointments in the days following the explosion, halting treatment is simply not an option, Abdallah explained. The window for egg retrieval and embryo transfer is very tight and delaying care would mean starting the entire process over again – risking time and money many couples do not have. Less than 24 hours after the bombing, Abdallah was formulating a plan to continue providing time-sensitive treatment to these patients, which required retrieving their valuable medical records from inside the most heavily damaged part of the clinic. Again, a crew of fire personnel and other law enforcement entered the compromised building. 'We needed a team of people to kind of bucket brigade all these folders out of the building,' Lyle said. Abdallah also asked them to haul out two brand new ultrasound machines. 'I was just really amazed at the risk they're willing to take, and how they just work so well together,' the clinic director said. As the clinic races to rebuild, Abdallah is determined to continue providing care. On Monday, his staff saw patients in a room loaned to them by a fellow physician. But the emotional trauma experienced by his patients and staff is not lost on Abdallah, whose office is holding a news conference Thursday to update the community on its plans for 'moving forward with strength and renewed purpose.' 'The patients who have embryos, a lot of them regard those embryos as children,' he said. 'They go through so much to get to that point where their embryos are frozen. They need a lot of reassurance to know that their embryos are safe.'
CNN
21-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing: How disaster was averted
Source: CNN Christy Holstege, the former mayor of Palm Springs who is 18 weeks pregnant, was playing with her pre-schooler in their living room Saturday morning when a blast reverberated through her neighborhood and a plume of smoke began to grow on the horizon. It didn't take long for word to reach her that the building ablaze was the local fertility clinic. Panic gripped Holstege as she thought of her last remaining embryo stored inside the clinic and her concern deepened as she considered the safety of the staff that had carried her family through the last five years of in-vitro fertilization treatment – first with her son and again this year. Through a fortuitous turn of events, the usually bustling American Reproductive Center was completely empty when a car exploded outside the clinic Saturday, blowing a gaping hole in the side of the building and severing the power supply of the lab where thousands of embryos and other specimens are stored. For miles around the blast zone, Coachella Valley families held the babies and toddlers conceived at ARC. Alongside hopeful would-be parents, they worried for the immediate fate of their remaining embryos in the clinic, and for the long-term safety of the reproductive center, which authorities believe was targeted in an act of domestic terrorism. Mothers Sophie and Simone Bain-Tohl were hosting a party full of fellow parents when they heard news of the attack. The room grew somber as they surrounded a play mat full of wriggling babies – two of them conceived by IVF – and realized every person in the room either had embryos stored at ARC or knew someone who does. Though the frozen embryos at the clinic would remain cold without electricity, a set of embryos being incubated would be irreversibly damaged if power was not restored within hours. But at the scene of the explosion, a firefighter began to hatch a risky plan to protect future families, including that of a fellow first responder. Firefighters initially rushed to tamp down the blaze caused by the explosion and ensure no victims were inside. But the crumbling building soon began to shift and bomb squad technicians became concerned about a possible secondary device that could put first responders at risk. When Deputy Fire Chief Greg Lyle arrived an hour after the blast, first responders had been ordered to get out of the still smoking building until a bomb squad could assess the scene. Clinic director Dr. Maher Abdallah, who was able to access clinic security cameras before the power went out, reported that the embryo lab appeared intact, but Lyle was not convinced. Itching to help, he and the other firefighters began considering how they could ensure the embryo incubators and cryogenic tanks were secure. 'So I went over to the lead FBI investigator, and kind of pitched a crazy scheme to him, fully expecting him to say no,' Lyle said. The scheme: Lyle would venture alone into the still standing part of the building, which contained unknown risk of structural collapse, a secondary explosion or additional fires, to find the lab and assess the status of the embryos. 'This is a crazy plan, and if anybody's going to get hurt, the only thing that I would be able to be comfortable with is that it would be me,' he said. 'I just had a gut feeling it had to be me.' The FBI agent, identified by the city police chief as Agent Chris Meltzer, embraced the plan under one condition: Meltzer would accompany Lyle. Together, the pair headed into the building, cautiously navigating blown-out door frames, crumbling drywall and several inches of standing water, likely from a water main break or fire sprinklers. They eventually spotted a room stacked with what appeared to be cryogenic tanks. 'We thought initially that maybe we could go in and just grab it and go. But it was obvious there was too much (equipment) – too big, too bulky, too heavy,' Lyle said. 'So we determined the only thing we could do would be restore power to this stuff.' Quickly, they realized the backup generators had failed, and it became increasingly clear they alone would not be able to restore the electricity. The pair picked their way back out of the building to assemble a team of firefighters, police and bomb squad personnel to address the outage. 'It took them a while, but they were successful,' Lyle said. The team's heroic initiative likely saved the incubating embryos, Abdallah said. An hour or two longer without power could have had tragic consequences. Unbeknownst to Lyle, the ARC lab houses embryos belonging to the wife of one of his own firefighters, who sent Lyle a message thanking him for preserving his family's future. 'It kind of hit home there. I didn't even know,' Lyle said. The firefighter's wife is among the patients with appointments early this week. Yet, in order to continue ongoing treatment for patients, it would take a second team effort to keep the delicate process moving forward. Most Saturdays, Abdallah and his staff are flitting between patient rooms and laboratories, sterilizing equipment, checking on growing embryos and walking hopeful parents through the arduous process of in vitro fertilization. But through a series of inexplicable events, the clinic was completely empty on Saturday when the car exploded outside. Abdallah had spontaneously decided to visit family. Two other weekend employees had been called away. And the clinic, just days before, had rescheduled a procedure that would have required 12 employees to be in the office at the time of the explosion. 'So many things happened to protect our staff,' Abdallah said. 'It's just really a miracle.' Though shaken by the bombing, Abdallah and his staff have been seeking solace in each others' presence and their shared determination to continue operating the clinic. The attack, though unsuccessful, delivered a seismic shock to patients and violated a space that many feel is far more intimate than just a medical clinic; It's the venue where their families were formed and precious possibilities are stored. 'I went there every week for the last 12 weeks, sometimes twice a week,' Holstege said. 'That is my home, my medical home.' As the only fertility clinic within a 100-mile radius, ARC stores thousands of embryos, eggs and sperm specimens for patients from Palm Springs to as far as Asia and the Middle East, Abdallah said. Several families who depend on ARC for fertility services described a profound level of care from the clinic's staff, who have made late-night calls to share test results, scheduled extra ultrasounds for nervous mothers and held patients in their arms during moments of both grief and joy. 'ARC is a place where we went to build our family and holds so much more than just a clinic. It's a place of vulnerability and hope and tenderness, and the staff there is just incredible,' said Sophie Bain-Tohl, whose four-month-old son was conceived at ARC. Though Bain-Tohl and her wife plan to keep their embryos at ARC, the attack has left them with a lingering fear for the safety of their embryos, which they hope will one day provide them with a daughter. 'Our sense of safety is shattered by something like this,' Simone Bain-Tohl said. 'It's such an absurd event that you never really think it's going to happen, especially to a place that's tied to so much hope and vulnerability.' Investigators say the 25-year-old bombing suspect, who was killed in the blast, had 'nihilistic ideations' and intentionally targeted the IVF facility – a reality that Holstege and other patients are having difficulty coming to terms with. 'Why would someone do this? Who could do this? This is a place of hope and creating life,' said Holstege. For some patients with appointments in the days following the explosion, halting treatment is simply not an option, Abdallah explained. The window for egg retrieval and embryo transfer is very tight and delaying care would mean starting the entire process over again – risking time and money many couples do not have. Less than 24 hours after the bombing, Abdallah was formulating a plan to continue providing time-sensitive treatment to these patients, which required retrieving their valuable medical records from inside the most heavily damaged part of the clinic. Again, a crew of fire personnel and other law enforcement entered the compromised building. 'We needed a team of people to kind of bucket brigade all these folders out of the building,' Lyle said. Abdallah also asked them to haul out two brand new ultrasound machines. 'I was just really amazed at the risk they're willing to take, and how they just work so well together,' the clinic director said. As the clinic races to rebuild, Abdallah is determined to continue providing care. On Monday, his staff saw patients in a room loaned to them by a fellow physician. But the emotional trauma experienced by his patients and staff is not lost on Abdallah, whose office is holding a news conference Thursday to update the community on its plans for 'moving forward with strength and renewed purpose.' 'The patients who have embryos, a lot of them regard those embryos as children,' he said. 'They go through so much to get to that point where their embryos are frozen. They need a lot of reassurance to know that their embryos are safe.' See Full Web Article
CNN
20-05-2025
- Health
- CNN
How small miracles and smart actions averted disaster for patients and staff of a bombed Palm Springs fertility clinic
Christy Holstege, the former mayor of Palm Springs who is 18 weeks pregnant, was playing with her pre-schooler in their living room Saturday morning when a blast reverberated through her neighborhood and a plume of smoke began to grow on the horizon. It didn't take long for word to reach her that the building ablaze was the local fertility clinic. Panic gripped Holstege as she thought of her last remaining embryo stored inside the clinic and her concern deepened as she considered the safety of the staff that had carried her family through the last five years of in-vitro fertilization treatment – first with her son and again this year. Through a fortuitous turn of events, the usually bustling American Reproductive Center was completely empty when a car exploded outside the clinic Saturday, blowing a gaping hole in the side of the building and severing the power supply of the lab where thousands of embryos are stored. For miles around the blast zone, Coachella Valley families held the babies and toddlers conceived at ARC. Alongside hopeful would-be parents, they worried for the immediate fate of their remaining embryos in the clinic, and for the long-term safety of the reproductive center, which authorities believe was targeted in an act of domestic terrorism. Mothers Sophie and Simone Bain-Tohl were hosting a party full of fellow parents when they heard news of the attack. The room grew somber as they surrounded a play mat full of wriggling babies – two of them conceived by IVF – and realized every person in the room either had embryos stored at ARC or knew someone who does. Though the frozen embryos at the clinic would remain cold without electricity, a set of embryos being incubated would be irreversibly damaged if power was not restored within hours. But at the scene of the explosion, a firefighter began to hatch a risky plan to protect future families, including that of a fellow first responder. Firefighters initially rushed to tamp down the blaze caused by the explosion and ensure no victims were inside. But the crumbling building soon began to shift and bomb squad technicians became concerned about a possible secondary device that could put first responders at risk. When Deputy Fire Chief Greg Lyle arrived an hour after the blast, first responders had been ordered to get out of the still smoking building until a bomb squad could assess the scene. Clinic director Dr. Maher Abdallah, who was able to access clinic security cameras before the power went out, reported that the embryo lab appeared intact, but Lyle was not convinced. Itching to help, he and the other firefighters began considering how they could ensure the embryo incubators and cryogenic tanks were secure. 'So I went over to the lead FBI investigator, and kind of pitched a crazy scheme to him, fully expecting him to say no,' Lyle said. The scheme: Lyle would venture alone into the still standing part of the building, which contained unknown risk of structural collapse, a secondary explosion or additional fires, to find the lab and assess the status of the embryos. 'This is a crazy plan, and if anybody's going to get hurt, the only thing that I would be able to be comfortable with is that it would be me,' he said. 'I just had a gut feeling it had to be me.' The FBI agent, identified by the city police chief as Agent Chris Meltzer, embraced the plan under one condition: Meltzer would accompany Lyle. Together, the pair headed into the building, cautiously navigating blown-out door frames, crumbling drywall and several inches of standing water, likely from a water main break or fire sprinklers. They eventually spotted a room stacked with what appeared to be cryogenic tanks. 'We thought initially that maybe we could go in and just grab it and go. But it was obvious there was too much (equipment) – too big, too bulky, too heavy,' Lyle said. 'So we determined the only thing we could do would be restore power to this stuff.' Quickly, they realized the backup generators had failed, and it became increasingly clear they alone would not be able to restore the electricity. The pair picked their way back out of the building to assemble a team of firefighters, police and bomb squad personnel to address the outage. 'It took them a while, but they were successful,' Lyle said. The team's heroic initiative likely saved the incubating embryos, Abdallah said. An hour or two longer without power could have had tragic consequences. Unbeknownst to Lyle, the ARC lab houses embryos belonging to the wife of one of his own firefighters, who sent Lyle a message thanking him for preserving his family's future. 'It kind of hit home there. I didn't even know,' Lyle said. The firefighter's wife is among the patients with appointments early this week. Yet, in order to continue ongoing treatment for patients, it would take a second team effort to keep the delicate process moving forward. Most Saturdays, Abdallah and his staff are flitting between patient rooms and laboratories, sterilizing equipment, checking on growing embryos and walking hopeful parents through the arduous process of in vitro fertilization. But through a series of inexplicable events, the clinic was completely empty on Saturday when the car exploded outside. Abdallah had spontaneously decided to visit family. Two other weekend employees had been called away. And the clinic, just days before, had rescheduled a procedure that would have required 12 employees to be in the office at the time of the explosion. 'So many things happened to protect our staff,' Abdallah said. 'It's just really a miracle.' Though shaken by the bombing, Abdallah and his staff have been seeking solace in each others' presence and their shared determination to continue operating the clinic. The attack, though unsuccessful, delivered a seismic shock to patients and violated a space that many feel is far more intimate than just a medical clinic; It's the venue where their families were formed and precious possibilities are stored. 'I went there every week for the last 12 weeks, sometimes twice a week,' Holstege said. 'That is my home, my medical home.' As the only fertility clinic within a 100-mile radius, ARC stores thousands of embryos, eggs and sperm specimens for patients from Palm Springs to as far as Asia and the Middle East, Abdallah said. Several families who depend on ARC for fertility services described a profound level of care from the clinic's staff, who have made late-night calls to share test results, scheduled extra ultrasounds for nervous mothers and held patients in their arms during moments of both grief and joy. 'ARC is a place where we went to build our family and holds so much more than just a clinic. It's a place of vulnerability and hope and tenderness, and the staff there is just incredible,' said Sophie Bain-Tohl, whose four-month-old son was conceived at ARC. Though Bain-Tohl and her wife plan to keep their embryos at ARC, the attack has left them with a lingering fear for the safety of their embryos, which they hope will one day provide them with a daughter. 'Our sense of safety is shattered by something like this,' Simone Bain-Tohl said. 'It's such an absurd event that you never really think it's going to happen, especially to a place that's tied to so much hope and vulnerability.' Investigators say the 25-year-old bombing suspect, who was killed in the blast, had 'nihilistic ideations' and intentionally targeted the IVF facility – a reality that Holstege and other patients are having difficulty coming to terms with. 'Why would someone do this? Who could do this? This is a place of hope and creating life,' said Holstege. For some patients with appointments in the days following the explosion, halting treatment is simply not an option, Abdallah explained. The window for egg retrieval and embryo transfer is very tight and delaying care would mean starting the entire process over again – risking time and money many couples do not have. Less than 24 hours after the bombing, Abdallah was formulating a plan to continue providing time-sensitive treatment to these patients, which required retrieving their valuable medical records from inside the most heavily damaged part of the clinic. Again, a crew of fire personnel and other law enforcement entered the compromised building. 'We needed a team of people to kind of bucket brigade all these folders out of the building,' Lyle said. Abdallah also asked them to haul out two brand new ultrasound machines. 'I was just really amazed at the risk they're willing to take, and how they just work so well together,' the clinic director said. As the clinic races to rebuild, Abdallah is determined to continue providing care. On Monday, his staff saw patients in a room loaned to them by a fellow physician. But the emotional trauma experienced by his patients and staff is not lost on Abdallah, whose office is holding a news conference Thursday to update the community on its plans for 'moving forward with strength and renewed purpose.' 'The patients who have embryos, a lot of them regard those embryos as children,' he said. 'They go through so much to get to that point where their embryos are frozen. They need a lot of reassurance to know that their embryos are safe.' CNN's Norma Galeana contributed to this report.
