AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The FBI says a car explosion outside of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, yesterday was an intentional act of terrorism. One person was killed and four others were injured. We're joined now by Madison Aument of member station KVCR in San Bernardino. Good morning.
MADISON AUMENT, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: Madison, this bombing happened outside the American Reproductive Centers, a fertility clinic. Can you tell us more about the attack?
AUMENT: Sure. Authorities say the explosion happened just before 11 a.m. And this clinic is on a main street near motels. It's pushed right up against these mountains that a lot of tourists come to Palm Springs to see. I wasn't able to get close to the clinic because police had the streets shut down for miles, but these photos on Facebook show a huge hole in the building. There's debris spilling out on the sidewalk. The red Spanish roof tiles got blown off the building and were all over. And again, one person was killed and at least four others were injured. During a press conference, Akil Davis with the FBI said the attack was aimed at the clinic.
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AKIL DAVIS: Make no mistake, this is an intentional act of terrorism. The FBI is investigating it as such. Our Joint Terrorism Task Force is here working in lockstep with the Palm Springs Police Department.
AUMENT: And Davis says it's one of the biggest bombing investigations the FBI has had in Southern California.
RASCOE: What's the extent of the damage? This is a fertility clinic. So are people's embryos safe?
AUMENT: Yeah, the head doctor got on Facebook really quickly after the bombing and posted that all the embryos, eggs and other reproductive material were not harmed. But this blast was really strong, and it was felt for blocks away. A lot of people I talked to thought it was an earthquake because their houses were shaking so much. I met Michael Beaumier who said he was riding his bike about a block away from the clinic when the explosion happened.
MICHAEL BEAUMIER: Knocked me right off my bike. And then around me, there was a lot of car alarms that went off, and you could hear glass shattering all around us, too.
AUMENT: And for blocks around, you could see big windows that had been blown out at businesses. Luckily, for Michael Beaumier, he landed on soft dirt, so he was OK.
RASCOE: What have authorities said about who may have carried out the bombing?
AUMENT: Well, they have not said a whole lot. The FBI said they have a person of interest and that they are not actively searching for anyone. Yesterday, they wouldn't say if the person who died is the suspect. The FBI did mention that the person was near a car. They did not elaborate. However, the lead doctor said on Facebook, it was, in fact, a car that exploded near his clinic. The one thing the FBI has definitively said is that this is an isolated incident, so there is no longer a threat to the public.
RASCOE: So what can we expect next?
AUMENT: Last night, Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said authorities were working through the night to continue the investigation. The blast was really strong, so it threw debris for blocks around the site, and authorities say it's going to take them a little while to collect all this evidence. Chief Mills told people if they find anything in their yard or around their home that they should just leave it and call the police.
RASCOE: That's Madison Aument from member station KVCR. Thank you so much for your reporting.
AUMENT: You're welcome.
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