ByElena Gomez
Sunday, May 18, 2025 5:23AM
The neighborhood was reportedly evacuated due to the possibility of explosives in the area. Officials are not saying if this scene is connected to the explosion in Palm Springs.
TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (KABC) — A neighborhood was evacuated as a large law enforcement scene unfolded in Twentynine Palms.
The neighborhood was reportedly evacuated due to the possibility of explosives in the area.
During a Saturday night news conference, Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said he could not comment if the scene was connected to a deadly explosion outside of a Palm Springs fertility clinic.
An Eyewitness News crew at the scene spotted a lot of law enforcement activity in the area. They even heard a loud bang, with officials at the scene shouting “fire in the hole.”
Crews in tactical gear were set up in the area. They were seen working on a robot, which is common at bomb squad scenes. An armored vehicle was also seen entering the evacuation zone.
The neighborhood was closed off from Adobe Road to Amboy Road.
The FBI has taken over the investigation in the neighborhood, officials said.
Eyewitness News spoke to a neighbor who was evacuated from his home. He said sheriff’s deputies told him to evacuate the area because a person behind his home had suspected bomb-making material in their house.
“There was just a bunch of sheriff’s deputies going door to door, telling everyone to leave,” Thomas Bickel said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of activity, like at that point, none of this was closed down yet. My little house happened to be the closest house to the house that they’re investigating, so I was one of the first ones to get told to evacuate.”
Bickle says he doesn’t know when exactly he’ll be allowed to go home.
“I have kids and they come hang out at my house sometimes, and knowing that someone was building a bomb that close to where me and my kids are, it’s pretty scary,” Bickel said.
The Twentynine Palms property is a little over an hour drive away from the explosion scene on North Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs.
READ MORE: Deadly blast outside Palm Springs fertility clinic was ‘intentional act of terrorism,’ FBI says
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The massive blast left one person dead and at least four injured on Saturday morning.
The person who was killed was near the vehicle involved in the explosion, Davis said. However, he said authorities are still working to confirm the identity of the person who died and declined to say whether the person who died is the suspect in the blast.
“We’re not prepared to comment on that at this moment,” Davis said. “We’re not prepared to provide any additional comments on the relationship between the decedent and our person of interest.”
In response to a question from a reporter later, Davis said, “We have a person of interest in this investigation, but we are not actively out searching for a suspect.”
The FBI is calling the blast an “intentional act of terrorism.”
“Terrorism came knocking on the door of Palm Springs. We survived, and I can tell you that this city will rise,” Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said.
Further details about a possible motive and the type of explosives used were not immediately available.
