The suspect who allegedly detonated a car bomb Saturday outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic appears to have left a prerecorded statement that he targeted the clinic because “I’m angry that I exist” and “nobody got my consent to bring me here.”
The online audio manifesto espoused a doctrine called efilism – which in the author’s words meant he was “anti-life.” Authorities have said they are examining the manifesto but have not at this point publicly confirmed it was authored by the suspected bomber, 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus.
The “efilisim” doctrine, championed in online postings by Gary Mosher, 65, who goes by the handle “Inmendham,” holds that human life is an evolutionary mistake and that people should choose not to procreate.
On Sunday, in a video posted to YouTube, Mosher insisted that the bombing was “clearly not my fault.”
“A guy named Guy, that’s all I knew him as, has done something really stupid and pointless,” said Mosher in the video. “And in a sense put the entire subject in jeopardy in some way by associating it with some dumbass act of violence.”
On Monday, when contacted by the Long Beach Post, Mosher declined to comment on the record.
Bartkus died in the explosion, which occurred around 11 a.m. on Saturday outside the American Reproductive Center in the 1100 block of North Indian Canyon Drive. Four bystanders were hospitalized and later released.
An AK-47 turned up near the burnt wreckage of the 2010 Ford Fusion that held the powerful bomb.
Authorities are still investigating what type of bomb Bartkus used in the attack and whether he had help from any co-conspirators.
Proponents of efilisim and a related doctrine called anti-natalism believe that procreation is unethical because the human condition involves suffering, and the babies being born didn’t consent to endure such suffering.
At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Akil Davis, FBI assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, said the bombing was “an intentional act of terrorism.”
The explosion partially collapsed the fertility clinic, shattered windows of surrounding buildings, and scattered debris over a wide area, leaving the community in a state of shock.
“Terrorism came knocking on the door of Palm Springs,” said Police Chief Andy Mills at the Saturday press conference, calling the aftermath a “massive crime scene.”
Authorities believe that Bartkus set up a camera on a tripod outside the clinic and attempted to livestream the attack.
On Saturday evening, a joint task force headed by the FBI executed a search warrant at Bartkus’s residence in Twentynine Palms, about an hour’s drive northeast of Palm Springs.
As a precautionary measure, authorities evacuated a several-block area while the search for evidence in the horrific attack took place.
Meanwhile, in a statement posted on the fertility clinic’s Facebook page, the director, Dr. Maher Abdallah, said that “no members of the ARC team were harmed, and our lab – including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials – remains fully secure and undamaged.”
Stephen Layne, a guest at a boutique hotel near the clinic, told the Long Beach Post that he was in his room when he heard a boom and the building began to shake.
“We all ran out and saw smoke billowing,” he said. The blast broke some of the hotel’s windows.
Layne said that the bombing triggered memories of the 9/11 attacks when he was living in New York.
“I dropped off my mom that morning at the World Trade Center,” he recalled. “She came home covered in dust, but she survived.”
Doug Kari is an attorney and freelance investigative journalist. Contact him at [email protected].