What to Know
- A car bomb exploded Saturday in a parking lot behind American Reproductive Centers in Palm Springs.
- No ARC team members were injured and the lab, including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials, was secure and not damaged.
- First responders were credited with saving thousands of embryos after entering the damaged building.
- Four people were injured in the explosion, which authorities deemed an intentional act of terrorism.
- The explosion killed the 25-year-old Twentynine Palms man suspected in the bombing.
First responders saved thousands of embryos stored inside a heavily damaged Palm Springs fertility clinic after a car bomb exploded Saturday in a parking lot behind the building, the clinic said Monday.
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WATCH HEREDr. Maher Abdallah, of American Reproductive Centers, confirmed to NBC News that embryos stored inside cryopreservation tanks inside the clinic were saved by authorities who responded to the blast, which caused significant damage blocks away from the clinic. Dr. Abdallah told NBC News he checked on the embryos Monday and all are still in good condition.
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SIGN UP The clinic was operating at another location Monday.
An assistant fire chief and FBI agent were credited with protecting the embryos when they entered the damaged building after the bombing. FBI agent Chris Meltzer and Assistant Palm Springs Fire Chief Greg Lyle entered the clinic and re-established electricity to power incubators and made sure the cryogenic containers inside the lab were not damaged, Chief Andy Mills said.
They also retrieved medical records, Mills said.
"At one point, verbalized if we don’t do something, the bad guy wins," Lyle said.
He recalls entering the lab with Meltzer to save the embryos.
"There was obviously too much of it, too heavy, too cumbersome to be able to bring it out," Lyle said. "And so we determined the best course of action was to try and repower it."
In a statement Saturday, American Reproductive Clinics said no team members were injured and the lab, including all eggs, embryos, and reproductive materials, was secure and not damaged. Operations and sensitive medical areas were not affected, according to the statement.
"Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients," Dr. Abdallah told The Associated Press in a phone interview Saturday.
Four people were injured in the explosion, which authorities deemed an intentional act of terrorism. The blast killed the man behind the bombing, identified by the FBI as 25-year-old Guy Bartkus, a Twentynine Palms resident.
Several law enforcement sources told NBC4 Investigates that Bartkus had a prolific online presence, most tied to video games, but also activity that appears to show his interest in explosives, a belief that the earth needs fewer humans, and experiments with drugs and devices designed to take his own life.
FBI Assistant Director Akil Davis said agents are still examining the potential motive, but said the bomb that was built was extremely powerful. It completely destroyed Bartkus's Ford sedan and scattered debris for blocks around.
The car was parked in a lot behind the American Reproductive Centers building when it exploded at about 11 a.m. Saturday in downtown Palm Springs, a usually busy area in the Riverside County resort community. The explosion shattered windows, left debris scattered in the street and touched off confusion and uncertainty in the neighborhood.
Aerial video showed what appeared to be a mangled car in the parking lot a few feet from the building.
