A Washington state man facing terrorism charges linked to bombing of the Palm Springs fertility clinic died in federal custody in Los Angeles, officials said.
Officials said Daniel Park, 32, was found unresponsive in a cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
“Response to employees taking life-saving measures, requiring emergency medical services as life-saving measures continue,” a statement from the Justice Department said. “Mr. Parker was transported to a local hospital by EMS and was subsequently announced by the hospital staff.”
No one else was injured, and no further details were immediately made about the cause of death.
Parker has been in federal custody since his arrest at John F. Kennedy International Airport earlier this month and has been accused of providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
He is accused of helping Guy Edward Bartkus fix 270 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive precursor that can be used to build homemade bombs.
Photos of DMV handouts from Daniel Park.
(FBI)
Bartkus, 25, was suspected of detonating a bomb at the American Reproductive Center in Palm Springs on May 17, killing himself and injuring four people. The explosion formed a debris field, spreading 250 yards across.
A few days after the explosion, authorities said Parker left the United States for Europe. Polish law enforcement eventually detained him and deported him back to the United States, where he was detained upon arriving in New York. The FBI affidavit says Parker tried to hurt himself when he faced Polish authorities. Parker made his first appearance in a federal court in Brooklyn and was then transferred to Los Angeles.
The park was accused of delivering about 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate in January and later paid 90 pounds of chemicals within the days before the Palm Springs attack.
Los Angeles’ Supreme Attorney Bill Essayli said the park spent two weeks in late January and early February at Bartkus in Twentynine Palms. Three days before Parker arrived at his home, Battercus studied how to use ammonium nitrate and fuel for a powerful explosion, according to federal criminal lawsuits.
Bartkus and Park allegedly conducted experiments together in Bartkus’ garage, from which the FBI recovered a large number of chemical pioneers and laboratory equipment after the bomb exploded.
Park has a similar ideology to Bartkus and posted information on internet forums about these ideologies, dating back to 2016, according to the FBI Assistant Director of the FBI, Akil Davis in Los Angeles.
FBI case investigators, as well as law enforcement sources, describe Battercus’s characteristics as having an idea of “anti-primitiveism.”
In public online posts, he believes that breeding without unborn consent is immoral and unreasonable, a world of struggle with environmental harm, violence and overpopularity.
“Parker’s social media posts show that he is trying to recruit other like-minded ideologies,” Davis said, adding that the so-called partnership between Parker and Bartcus is “one of those who find themselves equal on the internet, like-minded people on these chat forums.”
“They don’t believe people should exist,” Davis said.
Davis said a search warrant at a park residence in Kent, Washington, after the explosion led to agents identifying his role in the explosion.
Davis said six packets of ammonium nitrate were transported from the park in Seattle to Butterx. He said officials are awaiting the results of an analysis of explosive precursor chemicals.
The FBI described the functionality of the Palm Springs Blast, enough to damage buildings in several blocks, which was probably “the biggest bombing scene we encountered in Southern California,” eclipsed, with a 2018 SPA bombing exploded at Aliso Viejo in 2018.
Law enforcement sources previously told The Times that bombers used such a large amount of explosives that the bombs chopped his remains.
Law enforcement officers said authorities have retrieved explosive materials from Batcus’s home, and he is good at assembling explosive devices. He is also a long-time rocket maker.
Authorities have been searching for online trails to learn about Bartkus’ motivations, including a website specifically targeting the Palm Springs explosion. It has a 30-minute record that shows that it was uploaded at the time of the explosion and guarantees the video of the explosion (never released). There are also YouTube videos under the web alias related to Bartkus, as well as topics on Reddit and suicide forums.
Of these, Bartkus is frustrated by the death of “Best Friend,” Sophie, a woman living in Washington who runs multiple social media sites that embrace radical feminism, vegetarianism and suicide. She died in April and was allegedly shot by her partner in the head. The man told the police that he was acting as she asked.
After the bomb exploded, law enforcement took back the cell phone set up by Bartkus to record the bombing, the affidavit was written by FBI agent Andrew Bland. When authorities searched for their phones, they found a picture showing the car parked outside the fertility clinic before the bomb exploded. The image is marked as “voting”.
Brand wrote that Bartkus posted “a recording manifesto, a countdown on the bombing and a video of suicide bomb explosions.”
Brand wrote that in the manifesto, Battercus admitted that by bombing the clinic, he “caused damage, possibly death.”
