A 32-year-old Kent man faces federal charges that he allegedly provided material support to the Palm Springs, California fertility clinic bomber by shipping and paying for significant quantities of ammonium nitrate, an explosive precursor, prior to the suicidal bombing attack in May.
The FBI arrested Daniel Jongyon Park on a federal criminal complaint Tuesday night, June 3 shortly after his flight from Poland arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to a June 4 U.S. Department of Justice (DLJ) press release out of Los Angeles. Park is charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He is expected to make his initial appearance June 4 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York.
“Mr. Park’s contribution to the destructive device detonated on May 17 led to today’s (June 4) charges and we continue to ask the public to come forward with any information,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “We must strive to prevent another attack like this and the way we do that is to learn everything we can about what exactly caused the explosion, who knew about it or planned it, and why.”
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. 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 the DOJ.
Park, who shares Bartkus’s extremist views, according to the DOJ, reportedly shipped large quantities of explosive precursor materials to Bartkus, including approximately 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Days before the Palm Springs bombing, Park paid for an additional 90 pounds of ammonium nitrate that was shipped to Bartkus.
Park allegedly sent the first shipments of approximately 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus shortly before traveling to Bartkus’s residence, where he stayed with Bartkus from Jan. 25 to Feb. 8. Three days before Park arrived at Bartkus’s house, records from an AI chat application show that Bartkus researched how to make powerful explosions using ammonium nitrate and fuel, according to the DOJ.
During his stay at Bartkus’s residence, Park and Bartkus spent time in Bartkus’s room as well as in a detached garage “running experiments,” according to the affidavit. 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.
Four days after Bartkus conducted the suicide bombing, Park flew to Europe. On May 30, Park was detained in Poland and later was ordered deported to the United States.
If convicted, Park would face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
The FBI’s Inland Empire Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating this matter. Considerable assistance was provided by the Palm Springs Police Department, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department; the FBI’s legal attaché in Warsaw, Polish authorities, and FBI field offices in Seattle, New York, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Portland.
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