Accused Palm Springs bomb accomplice jumped to his death from prison balcony, sources say
Daniel Park, 32, was found unresponsive at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has yet to announce a determined cause of death. Two sources, not authorized to discuss the death, told The Times that information gathered shows Park climbed onto a surface and then jumped off a high balcony, fatally injuring himself. TMZ.com first reported the cause of death.
'Responding employees initiated life-saving measures, emergency medical services were requested while life-saving measures continued,' according to a statement from the Department of Justice. 'Mr. Park was transported by EMS to a local hospital and subsequently pronounced deceased by hospital personnel.'
No one else was injured and no further details on the cause of death were immediately available.
Park had been in federal custody since his arrest at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York this month and was charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist.
He was accused of helping Guy Edward Bartkus secure 270 pounds of ammonium nitrate, an explosive precursor that can be used to construct homemade bombs.
Bartkus, 25, is suspected of detonating a bomb at American Reproductive Centers on May 17, killing himself and injuring four people. The blast created a debris field across 250 yards.
Days after the bombing, authorities say, Park left the U.S. for Europe. Polish law enforcement eventually detained him and deported him back to the United States, where he was taken into custody upon arriving in New York. When Park was confronted by Polish authorities, he attempted to harm himself, according to an FBI affidavit. Park made his initial appearance in federal court in Brooklyn before being transferred to Los Angeles.
Park was accused of shipping about 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate in January and later paying for an additional 90 pounds of the chemical to be shipped to Bartkus in the days leading up to the Palm Springs attack.
U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said Park spent two weeks visiting Bartkus in Twentynine Palms in late January and early February. Three days before Park arrived at his house, according to a federal criminal complaint, Bartkus researched how to make powerful explosions using ammonium nitrate and fuel.
According to FBI Assistant Director for Los Angeles Akil Davis, Park had a similar ideology to Bartkus and posted about these ideologies on internet forums dating to 2016.
FBI case investigators, as well as law enforcement sources, characterize Bartkus as having 'antinatalist' ideations.
'They don't believe people should exist,' Davis said.
Search warrants conducted at Park's residence in Kent, Wash., in the wake of the bombing led agents to identify his role in the explosion, according to Davis.
Davis said six packages of ammonium nitrate were shipped from Park in Seattle to Bartkus. He said officials are awaiting the results of an analysis of the explosive precursor chemicals shipped from Park.
The FBI described the Palm Springs blast — powerful enough to damage buildings several blocks away — as 'probably the largest bombing scene that we've had in Southern California,' eclipsing the 2018 bombing of a day spa in Aliso Viejo.
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