Suspect in Palm Springs bombing is said to have died in blast

Caution tape at the scene after an explosion at the American Reproductive Centers clinic, in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday, May, 17, 2025. One person is dead in the desert oasis of Palm Springs, Calif., after a bomb exploded Saturday outside a fertility clinic, damaging buildings and leaving windows shattered in restaurants, shops and apartment buildings across several blocks in the city’s downtown. (Kyle Grillot/The New York Times)

By Laurel Rosenhall, Shawn Hubler and Maggie Miles

A 25-year-old man has been identified as the suspect in Saturday’s bombing outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California. Authorities said Sunday that they believe the man died in the blast, which injured four other people and damaged buildings across the desert city’s downtown.

The suspect, Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, California, was believed to have targeted the clinic. Officials called the bombing an act of terrorism by a man they said had “nihilistic ideations.”

The explosion shattered windows in businesses and homes in Palm Springs, which is known as a sunny vacation destination, and it sent vehicle fragments flying hundreds of feet in the air and across several blocks, officials said.

“This is probably the largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California,” said Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

The four people who were hurt had minor injuries and have been released from the hospital, officials said Sunday, adding that there was no active threat of danger from the explosion.

“Palm Springs is safe, and we are open for business,” Naomi Soto, the mayor pro tem, said at a news briefing.

In an interview Sunday, Bartkus’ father, Richard Bartkus, 75, said he had not seen his son in 10 years, and that he was shocked when a relative texted him Saturday to tell him his son had been implicated in the bombing.

He described his son as having been a boy who liked tinkering with small model rockets, and said that at age 9, his son lit the family house on fire while playing with matches.

Bartkus, of Yucca Valley, California, added that as a teenager, his son would make “stink bombs” and “smoke bombs.”

“Nothing major, nothing like a ‘bomb’ bomb, but he’d build rockets, shoot them in the air,” Bartkus said.

He added that his son was impressionable, and had often allowed himself to be drawn in by friends who got him into trouble. Once, for example, a friend whose parents owned a wrecking yard talked his son into smashing cars there, he said.

Bartkus said he had taught his son to use firearms. “Guy was a pretty good shot,” he said. “If he told you he was going to hit the C on a Coke can, he’d hit the C on the Coke can. Whatever he put his mind to, he was pretty good.”

He said that when his son reached his late teens, he built computers and worked with special-needs children.

“He wasn’t dumb,” Bartkus said. “But he wasn’t a leader. He was a follower.” He added: “If somebody came along and said this was a good idea, he’d probably go along with it.”