Man charged with supplying chemicals to Palm Springs fertility clinic bomber dies in custody

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Washington state man who was charged with aiding the bomber of a fertility clinic in Southern California died Tuesday in federal custody, just weeks after his arrest, prison officials said.

Daniel Park, 32, was accused of supplying chemicals to Guy Edward Bartkus of California, the bomber, who died in the May 17 explosion.

Park, of suburban Seattle, was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles Tuesday morning and was pronounced dead at a hospital, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. No cause of death was provided.

The two men connected in fringe online forums over their shared beliefs against human procreation, investigators said. The blast gutted the clinic in Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles, and shattered the windows of nearby buildings, with officials calling the attack terrorism. The facility was closed, and no embryos were damaged.

Park shipped 180 pounds (about 82 kilograms) of ammonium nitrate to Bartkus in January and bought another 90 pounds (about 41 kilograms) and had it shipped to him days before the explosion, investigators said. Park purchased ammonium nitrate online in several transactions between October 2022 and May 2025, according to a federal complaint.

Authorities said Park traveled to Twentynine Palms, California, near Palm Springs, to experiment with explosives in Bartkus’ garage months before the attack.

Three days before Park visited him in January, Bartkus asked an AI chat application about explosives, detonation velocity, diesel and gasoline mixtures, the complaint said. The discussion centered on how to create the most powerful blast.

Park was taken into custody at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on June 3, after he was extradited from Poland, where he fled four days after the attack. Park had been charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He had been at Metropolitan Detention Center since June 13, federal prison officials said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, which is prosecuting the case, referred questions about Park’s death to the Bureau of Prisons.

Park and Bartkus bonded over a “shared belief that people shouldn’t exist,” Akil Davis, the FBI’s assistant director in charge, said earlier this month.

They believed in anti-natalism, a fringe theory that opposes childbirth and population growth and contends that people should not continue to procreate. Officials said Bartkus intentionally targeted the American Reproductive Centers, a clinic that provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations.

Park appeared to be a frequent poster in an anti-natalist Reddit forum going back nearly a decade, according to court papers. In 2016, he spoke of recruiting others to the movement, which he described as hopeful.

According to court papers, he wrote: “When people are lost and distraught, death is always an option.”

Relatives told federal investigators that Park had made “pro-mortalist” statements since high school, according to the complaint.

More recently, in March, he posted in the forum to say he was seeking to find fellow anti-natalists in and around Washington state to “start some protests or just any in-person events,” according to court papers. The post did not receive any public comments.

The Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles is also used to detain people arrested for immigration violations. It's been the site of many recent protests over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, and Trump has deployed the National Guard to stand guard outside the facility.

Durkin Richer reported from Washington, D.C.

The exterior of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, on Sunday, May 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

FILE - Damage to a building is seen after an explosion in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

FILE - Debris covers the ground after an explosion on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Palm Springs, Calif. (ABC7 Los Angeles via AP, File)

FILE - A firefighter stands at the scene of an explosion in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

FILE - Sheriff's deputies walk near the scene of an explosion Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Palm Springs, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)