LOS ANGELES — A grenade brought to a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department facility detonated last week, killing three detectives, but a second grenade is still unaccounted for, the sheriff said Friday.
The sheriff’s officials from the Special Enforcement Bureau’s Arson Explosives Detail thought the two military-style grenades they seized from a Santa Monica storage unit on July 17 were inert, but one of them detonated the next day, killing the three men, officials said.
According to Sheriff Robert Luna, a federal investigation has revealed that the second grenade is still missing. Investigators have used X-rays to search vehicles and lockers at the East Los Angeles facility, as well as the blast site and facility perimeter, since the explosion, he said.
“We have looked at everything out there that we possibly could,” Luna informed us. He stated that the investigation into how the explosion occurred was ongoing.
“Right now there’s a second grenade, that we’re not 100% sure where it’s at,” Luna went on:
The explosion occurred around 7:30 a.m. on July 18 at the Sheriff’s Department’s Biscailuz Training Facility.
Detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn were killed while working on the Special Enforcement Bureau’s Arson Explosives Detail.
The day before the explosion, the detail was called in to assist Santa Monica police after two grenades were discovered in a tenant storage unit in a building’s underground parking garage, Luna said.
The explosives detectives “X-rayed the devices and believed that they were both inert,” Luna explained. The devices were transported to the facility to be destroyed and made safe, he stated.
According to Luna, officials do not believe the second grenade was lost en route from Santa Monica to the training center.
“We believe with confidence that did not occur,” according to him. Santa Monica is approximately 20 miles away from East Los Angeles.
However, if anyone sees what appears to be a grenade, explosive device, or even an unknown object, they are advised not to touch it and to contact 911.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives will lead the investigation into the second device’s location, Luna said. The ATF has also deployed its National Response Team to Los Angeles.
“We know from our post-blast examination that one device exploded,” ATF Los Angeles Division Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper stated. “And we have not recovered any evidence from a second device on that scene.”
Cooper stated that investigators, who used explosives-detecting dogs, drones, and cherry pickers to look in trees, “meticulously examined the radius of over 400 feet from the blast seat, multiple times.”
“Over the abundance of caution, we searched a blast area far greater than the results of that explosive device,” Cooper told reporters afterwards.
The sheriff’s department has changed its approach to explosives, treating all devices, including those thought to be inert, as live, according to Luna.
Luna stated that he has called for a thorough after-action review of department policies. “We are going to turn this upside down. “We’ll look at everything.” Luna spoke.
“We owe it to the families,” he explained. “And for God’s sake, I never want this to happen again.”
