Man charged after allegedly supplying chemicals in Palm Springs fertility clinic bombing

A Washington man is facing charges after allegedly providing large amounts of chemicals used in a car bomb outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic last month, federal authorities said Wednesday.

Daniel Park, a 32-year-old from Seattle, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City overnight in connection with the May 17 car bombing outside the American Reproductive Centers clinic in Palm Springs, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Park was charged in a federal complaint with providing and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, told reporters Wednesday.

Prosecutors allege that he supplied 270 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive precursor commonly used to construct homemade bombs, to Guy Edward Bartkus, the primary suspect in the bombing. The May bomb ultimately killed 25-year-old Bartkus and injured four others.

The attack damaged the clinic building and left a 250-yard debris field. No one who worked at the center was hurt, and the clinic said the center’s lab, which houses eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials, was not damaged.

Bartkus lived in Twentynine Palms and appeared to be motivated by anti-natalist ideology, two senior law enforcement officials previously told NBC News.

Park allegedly shared Bartkus’ extremist beliefs and had posted about the similar ideology on Internet forums dating back to 2016, Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said Wednesday.

Park allegedly shipped 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus, Essayli said.

“Park paid for an additional 90 pounds of ammonium nitrate that was shipped to Bartkus in the days leading up to the Palm Springs attack,” Essayli said.

Davis said that six packages of ammonium nitrate were shipped from Park in Seattle to Bartkus in Twentynine Palms.

A search warrant in Seattle also found that Park had “an explosive recipe that was similar to the Oklahoma City bombing,” Davis said.

“We believe that Park had knowledge of how to create an ammonium nitrate-fueled bomb,” Davis said. “Social media posts indicate that he was attempting to recruit others of like-minded ideology and discuss these things on internet forums.”

Investigators also learned that Park spent two weeks visiting Bartkus in Twentynine Palms in late January and early February, “running experiments in Bartkus’ garage, where the FBI recovered large quantities of chemical precursors and laboratory equipment after the bombing,” the prosecutor said.

Days after the bombing, prosecutors say Park fled the United States for Europe.

Park flew to Warsaw, Poland, via Denmark on May 21, where he was detained on May 30 by Polish authorities. He was deported back to the U.S. and arrested by the FBI and Port Authority police at JFK Airport.

Authorities said the investigation into the bombing is ongoing, noting Bartkus was not on their radar prior. There’s no indication that there were other potential targets for bombing, Davis said.

Park is expected to make his initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon in Brooklyn federal court. Essayli said the government will seek to detain him without bail, and the Marshal Service will transport him to the Central California District.

Davis called the attack in May “an intentional act of terrorism.”