Before the man police believe detonated a large explosive that blasted through a fertility clinic in the California desert community of Palm Springs on Saturday, people who knew Guy Edward Bartkus should have alerted authorities about his warning signs, the city’s police chief said.
“There were people in chat rooms, there were people who were connected to him, who had to have known, in my opinion, that he was up to nefarious deeds,” Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills told CNN, adding, “That should have been brought forward.”
Mills said the investigation has determined Bartkus, 25, “was chatting with people in online groups, in online forums, as well as posting stuff on YouTube where he was experimenting with different types of explosive materials. That should have been reported.”
Suspect had ‘nihilistic ideations’
With Bartkus having been killed in the bombing, sources say authorities are trying to determine a possible motive based on his prolific online presence and through a search of his residence about an hour northeast of Palm Springs.
Officials also released a photo of Bartkus, asking the public to report anything they may know about the suspect and his movements ahead of the explosion.
“The subject had nihilistic ideations,” Akil Davis, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, said at a Sunday news conference.
According to FBI research of past violent actors, nihilistic ideation refers to a “preoccupation with themes of violence, hopelessness, despair, pessimism, hatred, isolation, loneliness, or an ‘end-of-the-world’ philosophy,” said retired senior FBI profiler Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole. “Nihilistic ideation is a very pessimistic view of the world.”
Suspect may have recorded an audio message
The FBI’s insight into Bartkus’ views comes from their discovery of his writings, including a suspected manifesto, sources said.
One law enforcement source said authorities are also aware of a rambling audio recording posted online that could be associated with the incident, in which a man describes his intention to attack an in vitro fertilization clinic.
In the oftentimes incoherent audio message, the speaker discusses various grievances about his life and criticizes IVF while referring to himself as “anti-life.” He said the government should not restrict an individual’s “right to die,” and babies should not be permitted to be born without their prior consent.
Experts are quick to point out that trying to attach logic to heinous acts of violence is often an unsatisfying endeavor.
For example, O’Toole says the attacker’s suspected view about consent by the unborn “is not logical and has no basis in reality.”
In addition to being nihilistic, she said grievances expressed by violent offenders can also be “shallow, illogical and nonsensical, because they are a blending — a hodgepodge of different types of superficial information the offender found online or read about — in a very superficial way.”
O’Toole says, “most offenders who write manifestos do not conduct deep scientific dives into the information they use to create their personal themes or life-philosophies. They stitch together unrelated, unscientific, and often illogical ideas that simply appeal to them and bolster their justification for their lethal behavior.”
Attack was ‘targeted’ but motive is unknown
In the FBI’s latest public update on the Palm Springs bombing, Davis, who leads the bureau’s Los Angeles division, said, “This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility.”
Davis said Bartkus also attempted to live stream the bombing, although it remains unclear whether he was successful in broadcasting the incident.
Live streaming a suicidal act of violence is what the New York Police Department has referred to as “dying live,” said John Miller, CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst who previously oversaw counterterrorism operations for the NYPD.
Intelligence analysts see the public showcasing of an attack as a way for a perpetrator to not only gain attention, but to also control the narrative of their own life and its final moments.
“When people tell their life story, they never cast themselves as the villain, or the enemy or the failure,” he said. “They cast themselves as the hero or at least the victim who is dying for a more meaningful purpose than simply suicide.”
‘He was a follower’
While investigators continue to dig into Bartkus’ past, those who knew him said he previously took interest in flammable material.
In an interview with The New York Times, the suspect’s father, Richard Bartkus, said his son would tinker with model rockets, stink bombs, and smoke bombs, but not actual explosives.
The elder Bartkus said his son accidentally burned down the family home in 2009 while playing with matches.
Richard Bartkus, who said he had not seen his son in a decade, told the Times the suspect in the attack “wasn’t dumb,” adding, “But he wasn’t a leader. He was a follower. If somebody came along and said this was a good idea, he’d probably go along with it.”
As authorities continue to dig into the suspected attacker’s past, one major question for law enforcement remains: Did he have any outside help or inspiration to bomb the clinic?
Mills, the Palm Springs police chief, told CNN Monday he was “very confident” Guy Edward Bartkus acted alone at the scene of the explosion that rocked the fertility clinic, but added, “we want to make sure that, through social media, that others did not help him in any way.”
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