LOS ANGELES, June 4 (Xinhua) — A man in connection with a bombing attack last month on a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, has been arrested, authorities said on Wednesday.
Daniel Jongyon Park, of Washington State, is facing charges after allegedly providing material support to the Palm Springs fertility clinic bomber by shipping and paying for significant quantities of ammonium nitrate — an explosive precursor — prior to the suicidal terror attack, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.
The 32-year-old was arrested Tuesday night shortly after his flight from Poland arrived at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, said the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California in a press release, adding that Park is charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists and expected to make his initial appearance on Wednesday in United States District Court in Brooklyn, New York.
Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in the press release that Park’s contribution to the destructive device detonated on May 17 led to the charges.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Guy Edward Bartkus, 25, of Twentynine Palms, California, drove a car containing a bomb to a fertility clinic in Palm Springs on May 17. Bartkus detonated the bomb, killing himself, injuring numerous victims, destroying the fertility clinic’s building and damaging surrounding buildings and areas.
Authorities said that 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.
Park, who shares Bartkus’s extremist views, shipped large quantities of explosive precursor materials to Bartkus, including approximately 180 pounds (81.7 kilograms) of ammonium nitrate. Days before the Palm Springs bombing, Park paid for an additional 90 pounds (40.8 kilograms) of ammonium nitrate that was shipped to Bartkus, according to the press release.
If convicted, Park would face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.