The Federal Bureau of Prisons said on Tuesday that a suspect in the bombing of a California fertility clinic in May has died in federal custody.
Daniel Park, 32, of Washington state, was found unresponsive Tuesday morning at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.
Facility employees “initiated life-saving measures” on Park, who was then transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service were notified, the bureau said.
When asked about the cause and manner of death, the Bureau of Prisons provided a statement that did not specify if a cause or manner of death had been determined.
Palm Springs Clinic Bombing
Park was arrested in June following the May 17 bombing at the clinic in Palm Springs, approximately 100 miles east of Los Angeles.
The bombing killed one person, the primary suspect, Guy Bartkus, and injured several others.
Officials alleged that Park had secured 270 pounds of ammonium nitrate for Bartkus and that he had shared Bartkus’ views.
Park was not in California at the time of the bombing and was detained in Poland by Polish authorities after the bombing. U.S. authorities took him into custody in New York.
The Bureau of Prisons said Park arrived at the Los Angeles facility on June 13 and was awaiting trial after being indicted for malicious destruction of property.
Act Of Terrorism
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has described the incident as an ‘act of terrorism’.
Quoting Akil Davis, the head of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, the agency wrote on X: “Asst Director Davis confirmed the FBI is investigating the Palm Springs explosion as an act of #terrorism being investigated by the #JTTF.”
The FBI said there is no known threat to public safety at this time.
Davis had also said the FBI was tracking “a possible manifesto” as part of its investigation.
U.S. media outlets reported that a website contained messages that appeared to be linked to the suspect, in which he laid out a loose argument against human life.
“Basically, I’m a pro-mortalist,” the author wrote, according to a description of the site in the Los Angeles Times.
(With inputs from Reuters)
